Ziva in Middle Earth
by LadyRynofSunnydale
Summary: Ziva winds up landing in Middle Earth right before the departure of the Fellowship. Will Ziva survive Middle Earth, or, more importantly, will Middle Earth survive Ziva? NCIS Lord of the Rings crossover
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Lord of the Rings, or NCIS

_**A/N: ** I know that I am currently working on three other stories besides this one, but I randomly thought of this today, so I posted it. Whether or not this is updated as quickly as "Life is Interesting," my NCIS story, is another matter. I would appreciate it if you let me know what you think so I can decide whether or not to continue this. Also, I apologize for the shortness of it._

* * *

Ziva woke up, lying in an unfamiliar bed. Her side hurt like hell, so the conclusions she jumped to was that she was kidnapped by the terrorists she had been fighting after that flash of light had seemed to knock her out. However, she wasn't in so much pain that she believed that theory, and the sheets felt soft and cool under her hands. 

_Am I in a hospital? It can't be a hospital, it is too quiet._

She then suddenly heard the soft sound of clothes rustling to the right of her. She tensed up, but lay completely still, not quite sure if this person was friend or foe. She listened harder, gauged where the sound was coming from, and gritting her teeth against the pain, jumped up, grabbed the person's arm that was sitting next to her bed, and yanked it behind his (or her, she couldn't tell yet) back.

"Who are you, and where am I," she hissed in English into what she began to believe was a woman's ear. She was taking shallow breaths as the pain and the bandages around her chest restricted her airflow.

"My name is Arwen Undomiél, and you're in Rivendell," the woman said, also in English, her voice accented and taut with pain.

"Rivendell, never heard of it. What country?" Ziva asked, instantly suspicious. She did not recognize the accent, and she started recognizing that the clothes she was wearing were odd, and the architecture of the building around her was odd.

"It is by the river Bruinen, at the foot of the Misty Mountains," Arwen answered, then hissed as Ziva pulled her arm up more. "Middle Earth!"

"Middle Earth? Since when has there been a distinction between Middle Earth and Earth?" Ziva hissed again. Then she felt the cold metal of a blade on her neck. Between the confusion of waking up in a strange bed, trying to decipher what the woman was saying, and dealing with the pain in her side, Ziva had managed to not hear her attacker walk up behind her.

"Release her," a man's voice said behind her, the accent similar to the woman's.

Ziva let go of Arwen's arm as she then sprang up out of the chair and turned to face Ziva. That is when Ziva noticed the woman had pointed ears.

"Ok, what the hell is going on?" Ziva asked, putting her hands up in the air. "Am I in one of McGee's fantasy worlds? Middle Earth, people with pointed ears? How the hell did I get here?"

"That I can explain," the man behind her said. Ziva slowly turned around, trying not to make any sudden moves. By leaping out of bed and attacking the woman, it seemed she had reopened her wound, and the pain was coming back full force. There was no way she could take on anyone right now and win. Once she had turned full around, she stared into the confused gray eyes of a tall brunette man, his hair plaited back from his face, exposing his also pointed ears. His knife remained at Ziva's neck.

_Does anyone have normal ears in this universe? _Ziva thought to herself.

"My sons found you in the river, about a week ago," the man said. "Your side was ripped open and bleeding, and you were unconscious. They brought you here, and I treated your wounds. Well, until you decided to jump up and reopen them they were healing nicely," he said, nodding to her. That was when Ziva noticed what she was wearing. It was a long flowing lilac gown that reached down to the floor and swirled around her ankles.

_What the hell am I wearing?_ She thought as she then noticed the blood seeping though the gown on her right side. _Shit_.

"Do you remember how you got here?" the man asked.

"I was ambushed by an Al-Qaeda terrorist cell in a warehouse where I was supposed to meet an old friend," Ziva started, starting to remember. "I had run out of bullets and was using my knife…when I was stabbed in the side from behind." _Well, that is why my side hurts_, she thought. "Then, there was a blinding flash of light, and everything went dark. Then, I woke up here."

"Terrorists?" Arwen asked from behind her, watching her warily and rubbing her shoulder.

"Yes. Men who create terror and fear to try to control other's beliefs," she finished, then looked between the man and Arwen in disbelief. "You mean to tell me you do not know what terrorists or Al-Qaeda are?"

"No, we do not know the words, but we know the type of men you are talking about," the man said. "You fight these types of men?"

"Yes, basically since I was a child," Ziva answered.

"Then you are on our side and should have no reason to fight with us," the man said, lowering his knife. "I am Lord Elrond, Lord of Imladris, or Rivendell as others call it," Elrond said, placing his hand over his heart and giving a slight bow.

"Ziva, David," she said, not knowing why she trusted these people, but something in her told her she had to, and she could detect no lie in his eyes. She stood awkwardly, not quite sure whether she was supposed to bow or not. She then turned to Arwen. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Ziva," she said, holding out her hand.

Arwen awkwardly took it as Ziva shook her hand. "Arwen."

* * *

_**A/N:** Questions, suggestions, comments, flamers? I would love to hear them all, well except for the flamers, unless you think it is that bad. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NCIS or Lord of the Rings.

**Rating:** PG

_**A/N: ** Ok, I sat down last night and decided to write this and had a lot of fun with it. I have proofread it, and had others as well, so hopefully it won't have many errors. I really appreciate the reviews by Special Agent Meg, ACforever, Lady.Of.Silver, Sim Spider, CSigurlie07, and SuzieGeorge. I hope you like this chapter, and again, please review! It helps me so much with my writing and will help me improve on the next chapter if you let me know what you like and what you don't like._

* * *

"You want me to ride _that_?" Ziva asked, pointing to the large gray stallion that Arwen was currently holding the reins to. The stallion dropped his head and shook it, his silvery, thick mane flopping back and forth. Finding head shaking unsatisfactory in relieving the itch on his ear, he leaned his head into Arwen's side and pushed up against her.

"Asfaloth!" she scolded, pushing his head away. She turned to Ziva and shrugged. "Yes. You need to learn somehow how to ride, Ziva, or else you won't be able to get around. What are you going to do, walk everywhere?"

"Works for me," Ziva mumbled, her eyes roaming over the deep-seated leather saddle to the stallion's grey dappled hind end and swishing tail. She had ridden a horse many times before with her uncle when she was younger, but Arabians were much smaller than this huge thing. His back was about eyelevel, and his whole body was basically pure muscle, shown by the rippling skin whenever he moved. If this horse decided he didn't want her on his back, there would be no arguing with him.

"Come on, Ziva, please? I got him all cleaned up and pretty for you." Arwen tried unsuccessfully to give Ziva a pouting lip, but on her elven-features it just looked funny.

Ziva snorted and shook her head. She had been living in Rivendell for about three months now, and had begun to realize she wasn't going home anytime soon. She had also begun to become good friends with the elf that she had so rudely attacked her first day here. The next following days had been a little rocky, the two of them expecting the other to attack them at any moment. Slowly though, the two of them had started to relax, and when Ziva had asked to participate in a training session with Arwen and her two brothers and proceeded to throw a knife dead on at a target, the two of them had hit it off. They spent the rest of the day discussing knife-throwing techniques, leading into other discussions about balance and weight. Despite Arwen's earlier façade of being what the Americans called a girly-girl, she had turned out to be more similar to Ziva than she would have thought. Growing up with two older brothers had taught Arwen how to hold her own, and in the process they had also taught her how to fight. She had welcomed the introduction of another female to talk to. Slowly she had gotten Ziva's girly streak showing through in discussing clothing and ways to take care of hair. It hadn't taken long though for Ziva to learn the extent of the wicked streak in Arwen and her twin brothers when she had woken up one morning to clucking of about five chickens that had been released into her room.

The past month, Ziva had also learned that their mother had been terribly wounded by what was referred to by them as orcs, and had passed into the undying lands, leaving her family behind. Ziva could sympathize with them, having lost her own mother when she was very young to cancer. She didn't tell them how lucky they were to still have each other though, dreading the questions that could arise from that conversation.

As the two women had grown closer too, Arwen had begun to teach Ziva a little elvish and work with her on her sword and bow and arrow skills. Arwen had been delighted to see how quickly Ziva was picking up the weapon skills, and begged Ziva to teach her some of her other languages from home as well as her "crazy ninja skills" as Tony called them after she had witnessed them in a training session.

Oh, Tony. And McGee, Gibbs, Abby, Ducky, Jenny, and everyone else at NCIS that she had begun to see as family. Especially Gibbs who had become to be a better father to her than her own had ever been. When she and Arwen had still mistrusted each other, she had gone around internally mourning the loss of her friends, refusing to let anyone else see her anguish. No one knew how to get her back to her own time since no one really knew how she had gotten there in the first place. Her friendship with Arwen and the twins, as well as everyone else's welcoming of her, had helped ease the pain, but it was still there, hidden.

Asfaloth's stomping foot brought Ziva out of her memories. Arwen now had the look on her face that said Ziva had no say in the matter any more and was going to ride her horse. Ziva sighed, rolled her eyes, and walked towards the waiting stallion. A grin spread over Arwen's face as she slid the reins back over Asfaloth's head and settled them by the saddle, lying on the thick mane.

"Ok, just grab a hold of the mane," she said, pointing to the part of the mane where she had placed the reins, "put your foot in the stirrup, and jump up."

"Oh, that easy?" Ziva said, turning to look at Arwen. Arwen gave her that look again, and Ziva grabbed a hunk of mane and lifted up her leg and slid it into the iron stirrup, which was actually pretty far up. She took a deep breath, bounced a couple of times, pushed off, and swung her leg up and over Asfaloth's broad back, finally settling into the saddle. Her other foot fished around a little while until she found the other stirrup and slid that foot in.

"See? Was that so bad?" Arwen asked as she backed away. "Ok, now walk on."

Suddenly, a wolf whistle sounded out across the small field where she was currently standing. "Looking good there Zee-vah!"

"I don't know Elladan, don't you think she should be riding one of the ponies? Asfaloth may be too much for her," an almost identical voice answered.

Ziva turned in the saddle and gave the twins the best Gibbs glare she could. After the chicken incident, she had threatened both of them with a horrible death by gutting with a spoon (thank you Tony) and had Gibbs-slapped both of them. This had shocked them for a few seconds, and then they had thought it was hilarious. They had started going around Gibbs-slapping each other whenever the other made a stupid comment or did something they thought was deserving of what they had endearingly named the "Ziva slap."

"Oo, watch out there, she doesn't look too happy."

"Yeah, we probably should take all the spoons and hide them for her for tonight, shouldn't we?"

"Hmm, good idea."

"Come on Ziva, you're on, now why don't you walk around." Arwen's amused voice reached her as she turned back around and looked out over her horse's finely tipped ears. Hey, this wasn't so bad now that she was on. She lightly closed her legs around his wide barrel, and he walked off. Ok, she remembered this now. By lightly using the reins, she guided him around the field. Asfaloth's big smooth movements were foreign to her as he almost glided, but she finally fell into the rhythm of it and began to relax. This wasn't so bad after all.

"Ok, now faster," Arwen called again. Ziva tightened her legs around the wide barrel again, and he broke into a smooth trot. A huge grin spread over Ziva's face as she felt the smooth gait carry her effortlessly around. "See! You're a natural."

After some more instructions from Arwen's part and some yelled tips from the twins, Ziva decided she had had enough for the day just as Arwen suggested she stop. She let the stallion have his head as she brought him back down to a walk, and watched his long neck stretch down and out, his mane swishing against his neck. Arwen walked over as Ziva stopped him, dropped her stirrups and swung her leg over his wide back again. She had gotten so comfortable on the bigger horse, that she had forgotten the longer drop from his back, and stumbled when her feet touched the ground, keeping herself from falling only by grabbing onto the mane.

"Very graceful, astalder," Arwen said, coming up to rub her horse's head between his eyes, grinning at Ziva who just tossed her head up in the air and refused to look at her as she patted his neck. Asfaloth started sniffing around Arwen's tunic as she stood there, trying to find some food, and lipped at the hanging fabric that draped down and fluttered loosely around her thighs.

Suddenly, the pounding of horse hooves echoed across the field as one of the sure footed elven-horses galloped over the bridge, stopping by the stables. Elladan and Elrohir both dropped their foolish grins, and walked over to the elf that dismounted.

"Orcs," he said as the twins walked up.

"Wonderful," Arwen grumbled.

* * *

**End Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NCIS or Lord of the Rings, unfortunately.

**Rating:** PG-13 for some later violence

* * *

"So, tell me, do you have a man at home?" Arwen asked, both her and Ziva lying on their backs in the grass by the waterfall, the slight spray of water misting them. Elladin and Elrohir had left about two weeks ago to go combat the orcs, and neither Ziva nor Arwen were happy to be left behind, and now they were bored.

"Please, Arwen, I do not feel comfortable talking about this," Ziva responded, not turning her head from the blue sky above her.

Arwen rolled on her side, propping her head up with her hand as she looked at Ziva. "So there is someone! I knew it!"

"Arwen, if you stop pestering me about this, I will not ask you any embarrassing questions about Aragorn."

"That's no threat. Come on, details. Is it that one guy you talk about sometimes, Antony?"

"Tony. And no. Of course not. Tony is my partner, nothing more."

Ziva was saved from any more probing questions when the clip clop of hooves reached their ears and both looked up behind them to see Asfaloth walking towards them over the grass.

"Asfaloth! What are you doing?" Arwen said, sitting up and looking at her horse. He looked at her, snorted, then dropped his head and began grazing, he tail swishing lazily behind him.

"Guess he got out," Ziva said, also sitting up to look at her project from the past couple of weeks. It had taken her a couple of days, but she had finally started to remember the riding lessons that she had taken as a young girl. She had improved dramatically over the past week, increasing her riding speed to a controlled gallop. She now grinned at him and fished into the pouch attached at her waist.

She had refused to let Arwen force her into dresses for everyday affair, though she gladly wore the elaborate gowns at the couple of banquets that had been held that demanded fancy dress. She had to admit, the dresses were nice, and she and Arwen were about the same size so it was easy to acquire them. She was currently in a pair of breeches and a loose fitting top with soft leather knee high boots around her feet.

"Hey Asfaloth, do you want a treat?" she said, holding out her hand that contained some lembas bread. She had learned pretty quickly that these were his weak spot. He picked up his head, looked at Ziva's hand, and then whuffed through his nostrils. Deciding that the treat looked good, he gave a soft nicker and walked towards her, daintily taking the bread with his lips, and nuzzling Ziva's hair with his nose as he chewed. She felt her hair, neatly pulled into intricate braids by Arwen, begin to come loose as he played with the long strands.

"You're spoiling that horse rotten you know," Arwen grumbled, trying to hold back a smile as her friend played with her horse. Asfaloth then proceeded to lip Ziva's nose in a wet kiss. "Hey! Whose horse are you anyway?" she exclaimed as Ziva gave a very un-Ziva-like giggle.

Ziva stood up, grasping onto Asfoloth's mane. "Come on, buddy, better get you back home."

"What happened to the woman who was afraid of the big bad stallion a few weeks ago," Arwen said, standing up as well and brushing off the grass from her dress.

Ziva patted his thick muscular neck. "I do not know. He just sort of grows on you, yes?"

Arwen laughed her bird-like trill. "Yes."

The cry of an eagle echoed through the valley as one of the huge mountain eagles swept in, his huge wings casting the small group into shadow for a moment.

"What is that?" Ziva asked, following the large bird as it settled down by what looked to be Lord Elrond's house. She squinted, trying to see what was on it's back when Arwen started off at a run towards it, pulling up the skirt of her dress so as not to trip on it. "Arwen!"

"It's Gandalf. You put Asfaloth away and meet me there!" she called over her shoulder.

The stallion walked quietly beside her as she walked towards the stable, keeping her hand on his neck. She was dying to meet this Gandalf that she had heard so much about and learn why he had arrived in such a dramatic manner. Before she knew it, she was back at the stables and was leading Asfaloth towards one of the spacious pastures. She untied the gate, slapping him softly on the rump, sending him in. "I will see you later."

He turned to look at her as she retied the gate, shook his head again and trotted over towards his buddies in the far corner.

Ziva quickly jogged up the path, slowing down to carefully walk over the narrow bridge, then picked up a jog again up to the stairs by Lord Elrond's house. She took the stairs two at a time, and warily watched the eagle as he watched her when she ran by. She stopped outside the door to Elrond's study, smoothing out her shirt and brushing off the stray grass on her breeches. She also tried to smooth her hair into place before knocking.

"Enter." Lord Elrond's deep voice sounded through the thick door, and she reached her hand out to the doorknob, turning it and pushing it in. She walked in and turned to the left, spotting Elrond, Arwen, and a tall old grey haired and bearded man. He had thick bushy eyebrows currently close together in worry and a good-sized gash was above the left one.

"Ah, Ziva. I figured you would follow Arwen. What took you so long? Never mind, Gandalf this is Ziva David. She has been a guest with us here for a few months. Ziva, this is Gandalf," Elrond said, his brows also knotted with worry, his fingers tapping against his desk.

"Very nice to meet you," Gandalf said, and Ziva inclined her head slightly, a habit she had picked up in the past couple of months.

"And it is very nice to meet you as well. May I ask what is going on?"

That seemed to push Arwen over the edge as she looked over towards her and her father, and a conversation that she seemed to have interrupted began again.

"Let me go find them, ada."

"Arwen, I already said no. It is too dangerous."

"I am the fastest rider in Imladris! I can find them before they do!"

Elrond refused to look his daughter in the eye as he looked out of his window and into the distance.

"Ada!" Arwen's voice seemed to jerk him out of his thoughts as he turned to look at her. "Please."

Elrond looked at his daughter and sighed. "Very well. But I do not want you to get hurt. Take Hadafang, and ride swiftly. Find the hobbit as quickly as you can. Time is of the essence."

"Thank you!" Arwen said, throwing her arms around her father, then letting go and walking towards Ziva and the door. She stopped by Ziva, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I will see you soon. Do not worry."

She ran past her and out the door. Ziva turned an even more confused look at the wizard and elf still in the room.

"Ziva, sit. I will explain everything," Elrond said, pointing to the high backed chair by his desk as Gandalf sank into the one next to it.

* * *

_**A/N: **I apologize for some of my readers who wanted to see Ziva fighting in this scene. I had already had this written, and I kept juggling back and forth between having Ziva and Arwen go fight the orcs, but I decided to keep with this storyline to catch up to Lord of the Rings. There will be enough of Ziva fighting with orcs soon, do not worry. Please review and let me know what you think  
Lady Ryn_


	4. Flight to the Ford

**Disclaimer:** I do not, nor will ever, own Lord of the Rings or NCIS. I wish I did, but I don't, and if wishes were horses I would have more horses than the Rohirrim.

**Rating: **T. There is a curse word at the end, sorry. It's not bad, but I figured I should still warn

_**A/N:** Sorry for the really long delay! As you may have seen, some of my other stories have had really long delays as well, and my main problem is writer's block. I also get bored with a story sometimes and have to go on writing another one, and as you may have seen I have a new Wicked/ Lord of the Rings crossover. I should have learned that I shouldn't start new stories, but oh well. I hope you like this really long chapter! I hadn't updated in forever, so I figured I should give you a ton to make up for it! Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: dark-angels-who-eat-cookies, M E Wofford, BizzyLizzy, maryjean2001, NoFate2608, Isis the Sphinx, MaasaiGirl, The Fabulous Mrs Cole Turner, and Casperace13! You guys are awesome!_

_Ok, here is where you will start to recognize the movie. If anything is slightly off, I'm sorry. I haven't seen this movie in forever. Also, for the elvish there are translations at the bottom. Oh, also, if you want to know what a grey dappled horse is, there is a link on my profile for dappled grey horse, which is the same thing. Please review!  
_

_~Lady Ryn_

* * *

Ziva looked curiously from Gandalf to Elrond as she sat down, perched on the edge of her seat. Elrond sighed and sat down in his own chair behind his desk.

"Ziva, how much have you heard about the Ring of Power?" he asked, his eyes flickering to the outside window.

"Not that much. It does not seem to be a popular conversation topic. Elladin and Elrohir though have spoken about it sometimes," Ziva answered, the tension in the air causing her to shift around in the chair. _Where has Arwen gone? _"The main idea I've gotten from it though is that it is an evil ring that can corrupt the mind of whoever is in possession of it, and it was created by a dark lord a long time ago to try to take over Middle Earth. I heard it was lost?"

"It was," Gandalf answered, startling Ziva a bit and making her turn to face him. His piercing blue eyes bore into hers, but Ziva held firm. She hadn't been a Mossad officer for nothing. "Can we trust her Elrond?" he asked as he turned to the older elf.

"She has not shown us any reason not to," Elrond answered, then he slipped into his own tongue and continued speaking with Gandalf. Ziva hated it when they did that. Arwen did it at times too with Elrohir and Elladin when she knew they were talking about things they didn't want her to know about. She picked up a few words, like Israel and America, but that was it. Elrond finally stopped talking and both him and Gandalf turned to look at Ziva.

"Are you done?" Ziva asked.

"Elrond has informed me you come from another world?"

"That is the conclusion we have come to. I have not seen any of the lands that are present here on my mapa, and none of my lands are present on your maps, so it makes sense," Ziva answered, tapping her fingers on her knee.

"Strange. You have come in an unfortunate time Ziva. The Ring of Power has been found. Well it had been found 500 years ago, and has been under my nose for 50, but it now has awoken. It's heard its masters call."

"I thought Sauron was dead?"

"He never was dead," Elrond answered, steepling his long fingers. "When Isuldur refused to destroy the ring, he let Sauron live on. You have heard of Isuldur?"

"Aragorn's ancestor, yes? The one who cut the ring from Sauron's hand?" Ziva leaned forward in her chair, connecting eyes with Elrond. She didn't like the way this was going. It seemed she had fallen from one war to another, or at least the start of a war.

"Yes. And when he was killed in the river, the ring was lost. That is where I am finally able to pick up the story again," Gandalf answered, and Ziva turned from Elrond to the old man beside him. "500 years ago, or roughly that amount of time, the ring was found by one of the river people, and his companion killed him for it. It seems the evil of the ring began corrupting his mind early. He took the ring, and found its power: The power to disappear, and used that power to steal and cause havoc. He was thrown out of the village, and retreated into the Misty Mountains, where he remained deep underground by an underground lake, the ring with him, quiet. Until 50 years ago. It abandoned Gollum, and a hobbit quite accidentally stumbled upon it. Have you heard of Bilbo?"

Ziva nodded, "Of course. I have actually met him as well. He's living here now, sort of his retirement as he finishes his book." Ziva's eyes lit up as she remembered the ring he had spoken about. "His ring is THE Ring of Power?"

Gandalf nodded. "The very same, unfortunately for Bilbo. So you know the story?"

Ziva nodded. "Bilbo has told it to me. A fascinating story."

"Well, it seems hobbits are made of stronger stuff than I thought, for Bilbo held out against its evil for nigh 50 years. I only got my suspicions when his reluctance to give up the ring turned violent and he started saying similar things to what Gollum used to refer to the ring. I went to Gondor to do some research, then returned to the Shire to prove my suspicions, and sent Frodo on what I hope is not to his death, and rode swiftly to Saruman to let him know about the ring." Gandalf put his hands on his knees and stood, making his way to the window to look out. "But Saruman has betrayed us, and locked me up, after letting me know the nine are heading this way."

"The nine? Nine what?" Ziva asked, looking between Gandalf and Elrond.

"The nine ringwraiths," Elrond responded. "They used to be kings of men, but after Sauron gave them rings of power and then created the one ring to rule over them, they fell into shadow and are under his will know."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Extremely," Gandalf answered, turning around to face Ziva.

"Arwen just went out to try to rescue Frodo and Sam before the nine reach them," Elrond continued, twisting the ring on his hand around his finger.

Ziva shot up from the chair. "I need to help her."

"Ziva, no!" Elrond said, shooting up himself from his chair. "You will stay here until she returns."

"But I want to help!"

"Ziva! She's a trained warrior. As much as I don't like it she can take care of herself."

"And I am a trained killer! I can keep her safe!" Ziva responded, heading towards the door.

"Arwen has told me of your abilities, astalder_(1)_, but we don't need an assassin out there." Ziva stopped with her hand on the door at the word assassin. "We need someone who can outride them and outfight them if it comes to it."

"Outfight?! Elrond I have almost beat…"

"Hin dina_(2)_! This is not your fight and you are going to listen to me and stay in Rivendell. You are not to leave this valley and I do not want to hear that you've been in the stables. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Ziva snarled, throwing open the door and storming out.

"What?" Gandalf asked, watching her flee away from the building out the window.

Elrond sighed. "She has odd sayings sometimes that we don't quite understand."

"And a temper apparently."

"Yes, that too. My children encourage her."

* * *

The next morning dawned bright and early and Ziva was by the apartments, pacing back and forth. She had so much energy from sitting around for so long that she was ready to burst. Sparring was good and all, but she needed the adrenaline rush she got when faced with an enemy. She had spent the whole day before with her bow and some arrows at the shooting range, shooting arrow after arrow into the target. She was getting better, and the anger in her actually helped channel her abilities into hitting the target every time. She then coerced one of the elves in the sparring area to spar with her, but he had enough once she beat him a couple of times.

As Ziva fumed, she heard the slow tapping of a cane behind her, and stopped her pacing to watch Bilbo approach.

"Hello, Bilbo," she greeted, forcing a smile on her face as the old hobbit hobbled over to her.

"Good day, Ziva. What's got you so worked up?" His slow gravelly voice calmed Ziva down as she sighed and took a seat on the bench behind her, Bilbo sitting beside her. She debated whether or not she should tell Bilbo about his nephew.

"A scout brought some news about a problem beyond the Bruinen that Arwen went out to help control, and Elrond will not let me go help her." Her richly accented voice contrasted against Bilbo's scratchy one as she looked down at him.

"And when has that ever stopped you before? Elrond told you you were not allowed to spar with Arwen until your wounds healed up, but you did it anyway."

"But I have no horse," Ziva said, drumming her fingers on the bench.

"What about Sarnie_(3)_?"

Ziva shot up, her eyes going wide. "You are right! Sarnie would still be here because Arwen would have taken Asfaloth!" Sarnie was Arwen's other horse that she rode while Ziva rode Asfaloth. She was a mare so she usually wasn't used in battle, but she was just as good as Asfaloth. "Thank you Bilbo!" Ziva hugged the aging hobbit and then ran off towards the stable.

Bilbo chuckled as he heaved himself up off the bench and headed back towards his room.

Ziva went skidding into the barn and grabbed Sarnie's saddle and bridle out of the tack room and set it on the tie rail outside the barn, then grabbed the sword she usually used from the armory next to it.

"Sarnie!" she called as she ran to the pasture, untying the gate when she reached it. A lightly grey dappled horse came galloping at her, her ears pricked forward as her hooves drummed a staccato. She came to a screeching halt in front of Ziva and blew into her face. "Come on," Ziva said, grabbing her mane. "We have to be quick." She brought Sarnie out of the pasture and let go, turning around to tie up the gate, and then grabbed hold of her again to lead her to the tie rail. Once there she did a quick brush over to get any irritating dirt or debris from off her back, then threw the saddle pad and saddle over her back, quickly tightening the girth, then grabbed the bridle and put it over her head. As gracefully as she could, she put her foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over Sarnie's back, settling into the saddle. She turned her towards the path that led out of the valley and leaned forward a bit. "Noro lim_(4)_, Sarnie!" The horse bunched her muscles together and took off towards the path, Ziva having to grab onto her mane to keep her from being thrown back into the saddle. It took a couple of strides for Ziva to notice the elven-guards set at the path who turned at her quick approach.

"Oh no, not this time Ziva," they yelled, blocking her path. Ziva looked to both sides and saw the short hedge that bordered the path, the ground on the other side the same height and even as the ground in front. Ziva turned Sarnie towards the hedge, shoved her heels down and grabbed mane as she felt the mare drop her hind end under her and push off, easily clearing the hedge. The smooth motion barely jarred Ziva as she easily rode the horse in the arc, and braced herself for the impact on the other side. Once all hooves were on the ground, she sent her off again up the path.

"Ziva!" the guards yelled, trying to run after the mare, but Ziva was already gone.

As Sarnie pushed up the path, Ziva held on, and as they cleared the lip of the valley, Ziva sat up, looking around. Luckily Sarnie knew this land well, and as Ziva guided her towards the ford, she immediately swerved and avoided the valleys that opened up beneath them. As Ziva rode, she began to worry about what would happen when Elrond found out she disobeyed him, but pushed that out of her mind. The most important thing was getting to Arwen now, especially since she was a day behind.

The only break Ziva got in the monotonous sound of Sarnie's hooves on the ground was the weaving back and forth and she followed the path, avoiding valleys and gulleys that Ziva knew could kill a person and a horse if they went over the edge. As the sun sunk about an hour lower in the sky, she finally heard the sound of running water, and as they come up and over a hill, the ford opened up beneath them.

"Whoa, easy," Ziva murmured, pulling Sarnie back to a walk as they made their way down the sleep slope to the river. She let her trot across the river, the splashing of the water feeling good on Ziva's skin. As they got to the other side, Ziva let Sarnie walk, then halt. She dismounted and studied the ground, trying to find Asfaloth's tracks, finally finding them. Elven-horses were hard to track, but she hadn't been trained by Mosad for nothing. She mounted back up and followed the track at a canter, letting Sarnie catch her breath a bit before they galloped after Arwen again. The path weaved back and forth and over a few fallen logs and large obstacles that Ziva opted to go around and not over, still not quite confident to go over large obstacles yet, even though she and Sarnie had cleared that hedge back in Rivendell. The ground sloped up away from the river, and by nightfall she had topped a rise and before her opened flat, open ground. She knew she would lose Asfaloth's track by night, so she stopped Sarnie and dismounted, pulling off her saddle and bridle and letting her loose to rest. The mare cooled herself off before dropping her nose down to munch on grass as Ziva sat down by one of the last trees and leaned her back up against it. She closed her eyes, deciding just to rest them for a minute.

* * *

Ziva was awakened by the sunlight streaming through the leaves above her and striking her in the eye. She blinked confusedly and looked around, finally remembering her chase the day before. She looked around and spotted Sarnie nearby, watching her. She stood up and Sarnie walked over as she replaced the saddle back on her back and the bridle over her head, mounting up. She looked around again, finally finding Asfaloth's tracks and slowly let Sarnie warm up at a walk before letting her canter on.

By midday, she had entered another forest and was still able to follow the track, but lost it at a place covered in a few sets of horse hooves as night began to fall. Sarnie halted quickly and threw up her head, rolling her eyes as her nostrils flared. "Easy, girl, easy," Ziva said, sitting up straight as Sarnie did a small rear, flicking her tail as a screech tore through the silent forest. Ziva turned Sarnie in circles, trying to find the source of the noise, and set off in the same direction she had been traveling before when the sound didn't return, Sarnie dancing around and not listening at all. Suddenly, she heard a yell off to her side and quickly turned Sarnie in that direction, letting her gallop forward. The sound seemed to have traveled a good distance, but as she burst through a group of trees, she spotted a small group on foot in front of her and sat up and pulled Sarnie to a halt. The tall dark man in front whipped around, pulling out his sword as the sound of pounding hooves reached his ears, and Ziva got a good luck at his face.

"Strider!" she said, relief showing through her voice as she used his ranger name.

"Ziva? What…"

"No time to explain." She then noticed the hobbits around Aragorn. "Frodo?" she asked, looking to the dark haired one who was in front of her.

"No," Aragorn answered, walking towards her. "He was stabbed, so Arwen just took him and galloped off towards the ford. But…"

Ziva didn't wait for him as he reached out to grab her bridle, but turned Sarnie and galloped out of the forest in the direction of the ford, Sarnie finally listening. _Frodo stabbed. That cannot be good, _she thought. As she galloped through the trees, much faster than she had entered, she put the reins in one hand and reached for her knife at her waist, checking where it was just in case she needed it. As Sarnie continued to gallop, Ziva took the reins in both hands again as they broke through the trees and to the open plain she had galloped across before, and in front of her she finally got her first sight of Arwen and Asfaloth. She leaned down over Sarnie's neck, encouraging her to go faster, and felt her find another gear. She lost sight of her as she entered the forest, but they entered not too long after. A few minutes into the forest, she caught sight of Arwen again, but what was behind her chilled her to the bone. Nine pitch-black horses, each with riders cloaked in pitch-black garments had fanned out behind the elf and were drawing closer. She could see Asfaloth was tiring a bit after two days of what she was sure Arwen had had him galloping, trying to find Frodo. Luckily, Sarnie found yet another gear as she spotted her herd mate and lengthened her stride. Then, Ziva saw one of the riders draw up beside Asfaloth and reach his hand towards the little hobbit she could now see was in front of Arwen. She had to do something.

Again, she put the reins in one hand again and unsheathed her knife, taking quick aim then throwing it at the rider reaching towards Frodo, praying it would hit its target. She was rewarded with that unearthly scream she had heard earlier as the knife buried itself in its back, making him retract his hand. She saw Arwen lean farther down on Asfaloth's neck as he then found some more energy left and galloped faster. Now, however, the riders knew of Ziva's presence. Four of them turned, looking at her with their faceless heads and then checked their horses to fall on either side of Ziva, now just behind the last other five riders. That was when she realized they were herding her to a large fallen log that crossed the path, the one that Arwen was just clearing on Asfaloth. That log was bigger than she thought she could ever jump, but realizing there was no turning back, she grabbed mane again, shoving down her heels, and looked up and over the log. She felt Sarnie leap up and forward and Ziva barely kept herself on as she was thrown back, her grip on the mane the only thing keeping her on. She leaned back as they cleared the log as Sarnie started her descent down, and caught herself on the smooth impact as Sarnie then galloped forward again. The other riders had gone around the log so Ziva now had a straight shot to Arwen and slowly rode up beside her. Arwen looked over, saw Ziva, gave her a strained smile and kept on riding. After what seemed like an eternity with the black riders all around them, they broke through the trees and Ziva and Arwen both pulled both horses up as they cantered across the river and stopped at the other side. Both of them pulled out their swords as the riders stopped on the other side of the river.

"Give up the Halfling, she-self," one of them said, his voice like nails on a chalkboard and Ziva shivered.

"If you want him," Arwen's clear voice rang out across the river, "come and claim him."

As one, all the riders pulled out their swords and headed towards the river. As their horses' hooves entered the water, the horses' eyes rolling, she heard Arwen start to chant beside her.

"Nîn o Chithaeglir lasto beth daer; rimmo nín Bruinen dan in Ulaer_(5)_."

At Ulaer, she heard a rushing sound and looked upriver to see a huge wall of water shaped like horses coming towards them. The riders also noticed it, but too far into the water they tried to turn around, but the wall of water hit them, pushing all underwater.

Ziva released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding and heard Arwen do the same beside her. She then heard sounds of gasping, and turned towards Arwen as she swung off Asfaloth and lowered Frodo to the ground. "Frodo? Frodo no! Frodo, don't give in! Not now!" Arwen's eyes closed as she hugged him to her chest. As Ziva went to get off, Arwen's eyes flew open and she looked up at Ziva. "You can save him Ziva. Here, take him," she said, slinging him up in front of Ziva on Sarnie's shoulders. "Asfaloth can't go much farther and you need to get there and get him to my father as fast as you can. Go!"

Ziva spun Sarnie around and threw the reins at her, letting her gallop forward and up the bank, rocks flying out from beneath her hooves. Now going home and with all control on her, Sarnie almost flew across the landscape. Ziva had never gone so fast before, and just opted to hang on, keeping Frodo close to her chest. In record time, she recognized the ground and pulled back on the reins, trying to slow Sarnie down before they reached the valley opening, finally succeeding as they then trotted down the steep slope to Rivendell, Ziva leaning really far back and pulling Frodo with her. They finally leveled out, and as Ziva got a hold of Sarnie and slowed her to a walk, she looked up and noticed a couple of elves running towards her across the bridge, and they stopped beside her.

"He needs to go to Elrond, now!" she ordered, lifting Frodo up in front of her as one of the elves grabbed him and pulled him fully off Sarnie, cradling him as she ran across the bridge again and towards Elrond's office. Ziva looked up and noticed Elrond in the window, watching her. The look on his face, though relieved, was livid.

"Shit."

* * *

Translations:

1: Valiant one

2: Child quiet!

3: Pebble

4: run swift

5: Waters of the Hithaeglir, hear the word of power, rush, waters of Bruinen, against the Ringwraiths


	5. New and Old Acquaintances

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Lord of the Rings or NCIS. I can't think up anything witty to add to that today.

**Rating:** PG (nothing vulgar in this chapter)

**A/N:** _So, I know many of you want to kill me right now, and I apologize for that. I should have had more time to write while I was in London or over the summer, but it seems that even though I had the time, I did not have the motivation. So, the motivation has returned with the new season of NCIS (which is awesome, by the way), so I have written, while I should have been doing Biology and Chemistry homework, but oh well. Hope you like this new chapter, and I apologize if my writing is a little off for Ziva. I really couldn't get her voice down very well as I was writing this, and she kept turning into my character from my book, which is a totally different person. Oh well. And sorry if this chapter doesn't go very far. I felt the first couple of chapters rushed, so I wanted to slow down a bit and really take the time to develop her relationship with the other characters. And thank you to _Magician Girl Mirani, .silver-fishy., Hypnotized Angel, ohgravitysonfire, TomorrowNeverCame, Kuroi In a Black Hole, Silvergrass, Mwhahahaha18, Robert1000, ita-chan01, ranae-ultor, MeldaTavar, Angel of the Night Watchers, KidonDarkAngel, The Fabulous Mrs Cole Turner, asreal, Sarifina85, Casperace13, and Infinite Freedom _for reviewing, and to all the rest of you out there for favouriting this story and adding it to your alerts_._ You guys really do keep me writing, especially because I feel guilty when you guys review and I don't update. Thanks so much!_

_Enjoy!_

_~Lady Ryn_

_

* * *

  
_

Luckily for Ziva, Elrond was busy with Frodo for the next week, first healing him, then monitoring his progress. Still, she tried to stay under the radar for those days, feeling very much like she was back in the bullpen trying to avoid Gibbs after going against his wishes. Those thoughts made her start missing home again though, so she pushed them quickly out of her mind.

Most of her time she spent with the horses, taking turns taking both Asfaloth and Sarnie out of the pasture and grooming them so that their coats gleamed, then letting them back out into pasture. Though her favourite was still the stallion, Sarnie was starting to grow on her, especially after their gallop across half of Middle Earth to find the hobbit and bring him back. She was a good-hearted mare who wanted to do everything she could to please people. Asfaloth, on the other hand, had more personality, but that also meant he was much more stubborn and unwilling to cooperate.

It was on one of those many times when she stood in the barn, Sarnie tied to the tie rail as she groomed her, that she was startled by a soft voice.

"You're that lady from the forest, aren't you?" Ziva turned quickly, surprised she had not heard the owner of the voice earlier, and was greeted by the sight of two young hobbits. The one who had spoken was the darker haired of the two, and she recognized him as the hobbit she had mistaken as Frodo back in the forest with Aragorn.

"Excuse me?" Ziva asked, pushing back a lock of hair from her face.

"After that elf took Frodo, you're the lady who rode in asking about Frodo, aren't you?"

Petting Sarnie's nose as the mare turned to look at the two hobbits, Ziva nodded. "Yes, that was me. Gandalf had told us that Frodo and Sam were travelling from the Shire, and I had followed Arwen who had been sent out to find them. What happened to Frodo?"

The darker haired hobbit walked forward and also pet the mare's soft velvet nose. "He was stabbed, by one of those black riders." He sniffed, but didn't look away from the horse in front of him. "It was our fault really. We shouldn't have started that fire."

"It drew them straight to us." Ziva's eyes shifted to the lighter haired hobbit as he spoke, drawing nearer.

"Is he doing alright?" Ziva felt strongly protective of these smaller hobbits, and truly felt bad about the guilt that was apparently eating at them about their friend.

"Lord Elrond says he is going to be ok. Thank you," the lighter haired hobbit said, "for saving him."

Ziva shook her head. "Arwen did most of the work, I just brought him the last foot."

Both hobbits looked at her inquisitively, but didn't ask. "Thank you anyways," the darker haired hobbit finally said, stilling his petting of Sarnie.  
"Lord Elrond said that if it had taken him any longer to get here, he wouldn't have been able to be healed, and the elf, Arwen, said your coming in at the time you did saved his life."

"I could not let him die, nor let Arwen fight those wraiths alone." Ziva tried to smile at both hobbits, and stood awkwardly, smoothing out some of the raised hairs on Sarnie's mane. Deciding to change the subject and try to change their melancholy mood she asked, "Is either of you Sam?"

Both shook their heads and the lighter haired one spoke up, "Sam's with Frodo. He won't leave his side, and we really needed to get out of the hospital ward for a while. I'm Meriadoc Brandybuck, but you can call me Merry."

"And I'm Peregrin Took, but you can call me Pippin. What's your name?" the darker haired hobbit, Pippin, asked, his speech speeding up the more he spoke.

"My name is Ziva David. It is a pleasure to meet you," Ziva responded, inclining her head a bit as she had learned in these parts.

"Is this your horse?" Pippin asked, petting Sarnie's nose again, his attention away from Ziva.

"No, unfortunately. She is a wonderful horse though. She is Arwen's. As is Asfaloth, the horse she was riding when you saw her." Ziva absent-mindedly patted the mare's grey neck as Pippin giggled when Sarnie butted his chest with her nose and starting checking his pockets. Ziva smiled. "She is looking for treats. Arwen spoils her quite a lot. Would you like to give her some?"

"Yes!" Pippin's eyes lit up, and he followed her into the tack room and over towards a jar. Ziva pulled the lid off and reached in, grabbing a few cookie-like treats that smelled of oats and molasses. Merry came up beside Pippin to look in, both their faces lighting up at the smell of food. "You can both give her some. Just make sure you keep your hand flat and your fingers out of the way. You do not want her to get your fingers."

"Thank you!" they both said in unison and ran out of the tack room and over to the waiting horse. Pippin first, they both fed the large horse the sweet treats, giggling as her whiskers tickled their hands.

"She's so gentle," Merry said, patting the muscular neck.

"A gentle giant," Ziva responded, walking up behind them and keeping on eye on them. Their guilt seemed to have melted off as they played with the horse, and Ziva had to admit they reminded her very much of her and her sister when they were younger, though she guessed the two hobbits were of closer age than her and her sister had been. Unlike the twins, Elrohir and Elladin, the two were still innocent in the ways of war and death and still had the same playfulness and love of life that had disappeared in Ziva once her sister had been killed and she had joined Mossad. It was also the one thing that the team had begun to bring out in her again. She smiled, remembering the prank wars she had had with Tony during the stakeout, something she never would have done with Mossad.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by a nicker from Sarnie as she continued to search the hobbits' pockets once the treats were gone, and the barn aisle was filled with their giggling as her whiskers tickled them.

With a pat on the mare's broad back, Ziva asked, "Would you like to help me groom her?"

With vigorous nods, they both turned to look at her, expectant looks on their upturned faces as they had to look up to the woman. Though not very tall, she still towered over the tiny hobbits. Reaching into the grooming basket, she pulled out two soft brushes, handing them to the two hobbits. The brushes were much larger than their hands, but both were able to grasp them with both hands.

"Alright, just brush with the hair," Ziva said, guiding Pippin's brush over Sarnie's steely coat. "There you go."

Merry came to stand up beside Pippin, both brushing as high up as they could, which wasn't much higher than midway up her belly.

Suddenly, almost out of the blue, Pippin asked Ziva, without looking at her, "Are you an elf?"

Ziva shook her head, then, realizing they couldn't see her, answered, "No, I am human. Just a resident of this house."

More conversation was interrupted when a shout came through the grounds, reaching the barn. "Frodo's awake!"

"Frodo!" Pippin and Merry exclaimed, launching their brushes into the basket and running out of the barn and out of sight.

"Well, that is a good sign, is it not?" Ziva said to Sarnie, picking up a brush that had bounced out of the basket and finishing brushing her. Once gleaming, she untied her, leading her back towards the pasture and releasing her with her herd mates, then made her way back towards the house. She figured she had avoided Elrond long enough, and with Frodo awake now, he would have more time to find her. As she approached the house, she watched Arwen come out, wiping her hands on her dress.

"I heard Frodo was awake," Ziva said, drawing the elf's attention to her. Arwen nodded.

"Just awoke, and is moving around and seems to be doing well. I see you've been avoiding my ada," she said, a smile creeping up on her face.

"He has been busy, but yes, I have. And I want to thank you, for standing up for me. You did not have to do that." Ziva kept her head down, brushing off some of the dirt on her pants.

"I'm guessing you heard that from the masters Merry and Pippin. They are very good at eavesdropping. And you deserved the standing up for, Ziva. You really did save Frodo's life, and mine. That wraith was closing in on us, and most likely would have gotten us if you had not stabbed him."

"Ziva!" Their conversation was interrupted by Elrond's deep voice echoing in the courtyard. Ziva kept herself from flinching and looked up, meeting the half-elf's eyes and not liking the anger she saw in them. Arwen patted her shoulder as she walked by and away from the steps, Ziva going the opposite direction and following the Lord's retreating back. Once she stepped into his office, he shut the door behind them. Motioning to one of the chairs in front of his desk, he sat down behind it.

"What were you thinking?" His voice, though soft, was steely, and Ziva barely repressed the urge to shiver. "You went after Arwen after I had specifically told you not to, running into a situation you were not even remotely prepared for. You are a guest of this house, and don't think for a moment that I would not revoke your title of guest and ask you to leave."

"For going after your daughter?" Ziva's voice held strong, and her gaze never wavered. "I am sorry, Lord Elrond, but I have lost too many people in my life to let someone I care about go out into a dangerous situation without any back up when I have a chance to help them. I truly appreciate everything you have done for me, but I felt that that disobedience was justified. If you do not, then let me leave right now."

Elrond sighed, rubbing his temples. "Ziva, you have become an important part of this household, and both my sons and my daughter have really come to care for and respect you, and, I won't lie, so have I." At this, he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk and looking Ziva straight in the eye. "There are things in this world, however, that are not what you are used to, and the reason for me trying to keep you from doing things is not because I do not trust you, nor because I enjoy making you suffer. It is because I do not want you to rush headlong into a situation that you think you are prepared for, but you indeed are not. Those wraiths, though they may look human, are not, and that is what I was trying to protect you from."

Ziva nodded, smiling slightly. "I understand, Lord Elrond, and I appreciate your concern. But I do not like to be…what is the word…coddled."

With a grin breaking across his face, though slight, Elrond sat up, leaning against the back of the chair.

"And I am truly beginning to see that." Standing up, he leaned against his desk. "You can go now, and you don't need to worry about avoiding me anymore." At Ziva's look of surprise, the smile returned. "I know a lot more than you think."

Ziva inclined her head, standing, then retreated out of the office. Onec the door was shut behind her, she leaned up against it, a soft thunk being heard as her head fell back against the wood. With a shake of her head, and a sigh of relief, she pushed herself off and moved away and into the main part of Rivendell. Inclining her head at those elves she recognized, she headed towards a pair of ornately carved tall doors. Entering, she closed her eyes as the smell of old books reached her nose and she breathed in deeply.

"Oh, library, how I have missed you." The one place she knew Elrond would look for her would have been this library, one of her givers of immense pleasure since she had found it not long after she had arrived. Rows and rows of bookshelves lined the walls, filled with histories of this world and the races who dwelled in it. Though histories, the stories entranced her because she had never heard of any of them. _McGee would be in swine heaven,_ she thought with a smile as she headed towards one of the bookshelves, pulling one of the older stories of the elves out.

"She emerges." With a jump, she turned, and met the amused eyes of the one and only Aragorn.

"You know this would have been the first place Lord Elrond would have searched for me," she said, hugging the book to her chest and walking to sit next to Aragorn on the bench.

"Followed by the practice fields," Aragorn added with a smile, closing his own book to turn towards Ziva. "So you admit you were avoiding Elrond?"

"Even I must run from a fight sometimes," she responded with a slight raising of one corner of her lip.

Aragorn scrutinized her from his position a few feet away. "You know, I never would have taken you to be interested in books."

Ziva shook her head. "Nor would I of you. But it is one of my guilty pleasures. One my friends at home really did not know about."

With a nod, Aragorn pushed some of his hair out of his face. "It is good to see you again Ziva."

Ziva smiled. "And you too. It has been too long."

Aragorn shook his head. "Indeed it has. Middle Earth has become much more perilous these past few years, and the orcs have become bolder."

Ziva sighed. "I know, and I can see that just from the few months I have been here. Elrohir and Elladin were called away to an orc problem not long ago."

"A common occurrence. We rangers need all the help we can get."

The two sat in silence, Ziva staring off into space as Aragorn stared unseeing at the cover of his book. "This is an unfortunate time for you to have come Ziva. The elves are leaving and the land is raised in upheaval over a rising evil."

"It is still a beautiful land," Ziva responded, bringing her eyes back to her companion. "I wish I could see more of it, and help in bringing peace to it."

"You wish to help bring peace to a land that is not even yours to fight for?" Aragorn asked, meeting her eyes with a flicker of surprise.

"The fight against evil is not a new fight for me, Aragorn, so yes, I do wish to help, no matter where that evil is. I have seen what evil can do to people's lives, and I would wish to stop that from happening as much as I can."

Aragorn's eyes softened. "You speak as one from experience."

"We get much experience in evil in Israel," she responded, her eyes falling to look upon her book's cover as well.

Silence reigned in the library for a while, until Aragorn finally decided to break the silence. "Come, I interrupted you from doing what you came here to do, so I will leave you to your book." As Aragorn stood up to leave, Ziva stayed him with her hand.

"You can stay, Aragorn, I do not mind. I interrupted you too."

Aragorn smiled, and sat back down upon the bench, opening up his book, and beginning to read again. Ziva's eyes dropped back down to her book, and she cracked open the cover, delicately turning the pages to the beginning, and letting herself get immersed in the world in front of her.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Lord of the Rings, nor NCIS.

_**A/N:**__ Ummm, so, I have to say that I am a little embarrassed about my lack of updating. I have been a terrible author and I really have to thank everyone who continues to read and review my story. So, here is a new chapter. I apologize for it being short, but I wanted to get something out there. I am currently working on another chapter as well, but I am so rusty on both Lord of the Rings and NCIS, that I want to wait to get caught up on them before I update. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and thank you to everyone who reviewed. This is also for all of you who requested to see how the team responded to Ziva's disappearance._

_~Lady Ryn_

* * *

_A few months earlier_

Tony walked into the bullpen, tossing his backpack down behind his desk then plopping into his chair. Looking across to Ziva's desk, he cocked his head at the missing Israeli.

"Probie?" he started, his eyes not leaving the desk.

"Yes, Tony?" McGee rolled his eyes and didn't even look up from his computer, but continued typing away.

"Has Ziva come in yet?"

McGee sighed. "No Tony, she hasn't. And neither has Gibbs. Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, but she always gets in before I do, and I'm even late today." He paused, then shook his head, pulling his badge and gun out and placing them in his top drawer.

"Maybe she just slept through her alarm, Tony."

"Yeah, and maybe pigs grew wings." Tony turned to his computer and was placing his hands on his keyboard when the unmistakable voice of their boss reached them.

"Gear up, we got a dead sailor in Quantico." Gibbs walked around the corner coming from the director's office, and stopped in between Ziva's and Tony's desk. "Where's Ziva?"

"She hasn't come in yet, boss," McGee said, standing as he grabbed his gun and badge, Tony doing the same.

"Call her and have her meet us there," Gibbs finished, moving to his desk and grabbing his own gun and badge, following Tony and McGee to the elevator. As they arrived, the elevator dinged, and a dark haired medium height woman moved to step out, stopping at the sight of the three agents.

"Are any of you Agent Gibbs?" she asked, clutching a file to her chest, her eyes rapidly moving between each of them.

"That would be me," Gibbs said, stepping forward. "Can I help you?"

The woman nodded franticly. "Ziva always told me if something happened to her, to come straight to you."

"Wait, what?" McGee said, and at the moment the woman had all three of their attentions.

"What's happened," Gibbs asked, not letting her move forward.

"We were supposed to meet at this warehouse in Alexandria, because I had some information on an Al Queda sleeper cell working in DC, but when I showed up there was blood and bodies everywhere," the woman answered, shaking her head.

"And Ziva?" Tony asked, leaning over to look the woman straight in the eye.

"Missing."

Gibbs moved immediately into motion. "Tony, take Miss…?"

"Schneider."

"Miss Schneier here to the conference room. I'm going to let the director know."

"And me boss?" McGee asked, looking helpless.

"Try calling her McGee," Gibbs said as he quickly moved away towards the stairs.

"Got it," McGee responded, also moving quickly to his desk as Tony led the woman towards one of the conference rooms.

About an hour later, the team had had no luck in tracking down anything of ZIva's whereabouts, and the director had ok'ed them to go to the warehouse to process the scene. Tony and McGee were moving around, tagging and taking pictures of the scene, both unusually quiet.

"Do you think she's ok?" McGee asked, lowering the camera away from his eye.

"I don't know McGee. But this doesn't look good." Tony responded, his sketch pad in hand as he surveyed the scene.

"Neither did your car that we thought you had blown up in. And at least her body isn't here," McGee responded, snapping another picture.

"Yeah, but where is she?" Tony paused in his sketching to stare unseeingly at one of the dead bodies a few feet away.

"All of these men, Jethro, were killed either by a bullet, or a knife, with the exception of this one." Ducky was leaning down next to a body, Palmer beside him. "You see here, there, and there?" he said, pointing to deep and serious scorch marks on his hands, body, and face, the corpse's eyes still staring at the ceiling. "These are marks of an explosion, and a high heat one at that." Ducky shook his head, looking around. "It's almost as if a mini bomb went off, right where you are standing." Gibbs looked down at his feet, noticing the scorch marks on the concrete. "But nothing else was damaged."

"That doesn't make any sense," Gibbs responded, looking around.

"No, it does not." Ducky sighed, standing up from the body to look around again. "Well, if this scene is any indication, she put up a good fight."

"Yeah, the question now is where did she go?" Gibbs said, moving outside and pulling his cell phone out.

Back in the bullpen hours later, Tony and McGee stood in front of the large screen, clicking through the pictures of the dead men, and then driver's licenses.

"So all of the men in the warehouse were identified, and according to Miss Dina Schneider, these were all the men in the terrorist cell whom she had information on to give to Ziva," Tony said, shaking his head as picture after picture went by.

"Who sends out their whole cell to take down one person?" McGee asked, shaking his head.

"Maybe this wasn't the whole cell."

"It is the whole cell, Agent Dinozzo," Dina Schneider said, coming up to stand behind the two agents. "There were no others."

"Then what happened to Ziva?" Tony, asked, then clicked the clicker one more time. "And what about that mini bomb?"

Lead after lead the team followed, trying to find as much information as they could, though they never found any more information than what they had found at the crime scene. Director David had been called and notified, and not even he had been able to find any intelligence about the whereabouts of his daughter. Divers had dragged the rivers, and the most convenient bays had also been dragged, finding nothing. The days and weeks turned into months, and still no one gave up.

"Gear up," the voice of Gibbs dug through McGee's and Tony's musings one morning.

"Who are we kidding, boss? Going along and pretending as if she wasn't even missing?" Tony said, looking up from his computer. "This is bologna. Even her own father has written her off for dead."

"Literally." The team turned quickly as Jenny Shepherd walked into the bullpen, holding a sheet of paper. "Director David has just officially declared his daughter as dead."

Tony, who had been half standing as the director entered fell back into his chair, his head sinking into his hands.

"She has only been missing a few months," Gibbs argued, coming forward to take the sheet of paper.

"I know, Gibbs. And I'm sorry. I guess Director David has determined that is enough time to find someone if they were still alive."

"Well, we're not going to stop looking," DiNozzo stated, he eyes hard.

"I know you aren't, DiNozzo. And she deserves that." Jenny sent a strained smile at the mortified agents, then walked back up to her office.

"Dead?" McGee said, his voice choked with sorrow.

"Not yet, McGee," Gibbs responded, slamming the paper onto his desk.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Lord of the Rings, nor NCIS.

_**A/N:**__ Yes, I have updated! I know it has been a year and I have been a terrible, terrible author and I should be ashamed of myself, so I apologize. I hopefully should have more time on my hands to be able to finish this story, because I really do love writing, I just have writer's block problems. But I am watching NCIS again and have watched Lord of the Rings again for the first time in a while, so it inspired me to finally work on this story again. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and favorited and followed this story. I really do appreciate it, and you guys remind me that I have loyal readers out there who are counting on me to update. So here it is! I realize that in the last chapter I didn't have Abby's reaction, so I have a short blurb for her reaction (yes, it is really short, I'm sorry), and then it gets back to Ziva. Reviews and critiques are always appreciated, as always.  
_

_~Lady Ryn_

* * *

**_NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC_**

Tony entered Abby's lab and was met with the blaring of music and the back of the Goth's head.

"Hey, Abs," Tony said, dropping a Caf-Pow in front of her. With that she slammed her hands on the desk and spun to face him.

"It is physically impossible for a person to completely drop off the face of the Earth, do you know that Tony? Do you? Yeah, sure, people can "disappear" but they are still on Earth, and there is still evidence of them being on Earth, well, I guess unless you were on a space shuttle and weren't on Earth, but that's not the point!" She spun back around and started typing furiously on her computer again. "There is no way that Ziva has just disappeared from the face of the Earth." Tony leaned up against her desk and looked Abby in the face and noticed the tears streaming down. He then gathered Abby into his arms and let her cry as she semi collapsed against him. "I miss her Tony. Why can't we find her?"

Tony stroked her hair, holding her tight. "I know Abs. We'll find her. I promise."

* * *

_**Rivendell, Middle Earth**_

"Excuse me, my lady, but could you tell me where I may find the Lord Aragorn?" Ziva started as the soft voice reached her, and looked up into the fair face of one of the Mirkwood elves who had arrived earlier that day. His blonde hair was braided back in pieces from his face, prominently showing his pointy ears.

"I believe he is in the library, but the Lady Arwen just went to go find him, so he may be otherwise occupied at the moment," Ziva answered with a grin, closing her book, then realizing she was not speaking to one of the twins or Arwen, tried to correct herself. "I apologize, my lord, for speaking…"

The elf shook his head, smiling, and waved his hand to cut her off. "There is no need to apologize, my lady. If the Lords Elrohir and Elladin speak correctly, I am to guess you are the Lady Ziva?"

Ziva nodded. "Just Ziva, though, please. I do not do well with the whole 'Lady' thing. And may I ask who you are?"

The elf gave a half bow, his hand over his heart. "I am Legolas Thranduilion of Mirkwood, Just Ziva."

Ziva smiled, inclining her head. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Legolas."

Legolas shook his head. "Legolas is fine. I do not need a title." Gesturing to the bench she was sitting on. "Do you mind if I join you for a while?"

"Please," Ziva responded, scooting over to make room for the tall elf. As he sat down, Legolas looked out over the valley, this vantage point giving a good view. "Did you have a nice trip from Mirkwood? Elrohir and Elladin have told me it is pretty far from here."

Legolas sighed. "It was good enough. Though not for the hesitance to get here." He looked over to Ziva, and in answer to her questioning glance, "I do not bring good news to Lord Elrond from my father, though I wish I could."

"I hope you do not mind me asking, but your father is…?"

"King Thranduil, once of Greenwood, now Mirkwood."

Ziva could not have jumped off that bench faster if someone had placed a loaded spring under her. "You are a prince! Ummm, do I need to bow, or kneel, or something?" Ziva had never met royalty, and had to say she had no idea what to do now that she did. She was half bowing, half trying to go down on a knee, until she heard the elf sigh.

"Please, we were having a nice conversation, or at least were starting one. Please do not ruin it with formalities," Legolas said as he stood, reaching out a hand to the finally stationary Israeli.

"So, you do not need me to bow, or anything?" She asked, looking up at the elf. Legolas shook his head.

"No. I am not that kind of royalty."

"Oh," she said, moving to sit on the bench again, Legolas sitting beside her. "I am sorry. I am not used to all of," she waved her hand around Rivendell and towards the elf beside her vaguely, "this yet."

Legolas smiled. "That is alright. I believe the twins told me you have only been here a few months?"

Ziva nodded. "It will be four months next week. I cannot believe how much time flies." Ziva sighed as her thoughts strayed back to her friends.

"Do you miss your friends and family?" Legolas asked, turning his head to look the Israeli in the eye.

Ziva half smiled. "Am I that transparent? You elves seem very good at guessing what I am thinking. But yes, I do miss them. Well, my friends at least. I do not get along well with my father."

Legolas smiled, propping himself up on his hands as he placed them behind him on the bench. He raised his face up, letting the sun shine on it. "I think we have common ground there. My father and I do not get along either. He was not happy about my volunteering to come to Elrond's council."

Ziva smirked, mimicking Legolas's posture. "My father was not happy when I volunteered to work in another country either. I guess we do have something in common." Ziva turned to look at the blond elf, but was interrupted by Aragorn's voice reaching them.

"Legolas! Mae govannen, mellonin!" Legolas sat up as a smile split his face.

"Estel!" As the elf stood, Aragorn clasped him on the shoulder, Legolas doing the same to him as Arwen came up behind Aragorn, smiling at the two friends. Legolas turned from Aragorn, his smile stretching into his eyes. "My lady Arwen," he said, inclining his head. "It is good to see you. You are keeping Aragorn busy I hear." Arwen raised an eyebrow as she looked passed Legolas to Ziva. Ziva stood shaking her head.

"I did not say anything."

Legolas's smile broadened. "Ah, lady Ziva, it was not what you said, but what you implied."

Arwen walked passed Legolas wagging her finger at the woman, then grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the two males. "It was good to see you again, Legolas!" she yelled over her shoulder.

The two males laughed as they heard Ziva exclaiming as she was pulled away, "I did not say anything, Arwen! Do not get mad at me…."

"I think the human has had a good influence on Arwen," Legolas said, the two walking in the opposite direction Arwen and Ziva had disappeared. Aragorn laughed.

"I agree. I think Ziva is the younger sister Arwen never had."

"Elladan and Elrohir speak very highly of her."

Aragorn grinned. "You should see her with a sword. All the twins had to do was see her fight and she was their best friend. They also learned how easy it was to aggravate the poor woman, and the rest is history."

Legolas laughed in response, and then fell silent. The two continued to walk in comfortable silence, until Legolas stopped on an overhang that looked out over the valley. They had climbed a ways from where they had started, and Imladris opened out in front of them. He sighed. "Estel, I do not bring good tidings from my father, nor from Mirkwood. Gollum has escaped."

Aragorn turned to face Legolas so quickly the elf heard his neck crack. "What? What happened?"

"I guess you could say that the kindness of the elves was our downfall. We didn't have the heart to keep him locked up in the dungeons, so we let him out sometimes, guarded of course, and allowed him to climb some of the trees in the forest. We think he had outside aid, because one day he refused to climb back down, and his guard was attacked by orcs and goblins, and he escaped. We tried to find him again, but his track led to Dol Goldur."

Aragorn sighed. "This is not good news indeed."

Legolas turned to his friend. "I am sorry, Estel. We did not mean for it to happen." Aragorn turned to the elf and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know you didn't Legolas." Dropping his hand from Legolas's shoulder, the two looked out over the valley again, until the faint sound of a bell drifted over the wind to them. "Come, that is the call do dinner. Let us try to be happy for a time until the dark tidings we must face tomorrow at the Council engulf us."

Dinner was a large affair that night, designed to feed all the individuals who had come to Imladris for the council. A long table was set up with Elrond and Arwen at one end, surrounded by other members of the household. Down the rest of the table were groupings of the elves, men, and dwarves who had arrived that morning, as well as the small grouping of hobbits that included Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and Sam.

Ziva entered a little later than everyone, having taken her time getting ready after borrowing a gown from Arwen after being reprimanded for spreading gossip. The Israeli looked very elven with her plaited hair and flowing gown, and she returned Arwen's smile as she entered the room and locked eyes with her friend. She then looked around the table, looking for a space to sit, when her searching was interrupted by a small hand reaching into hers. Looking down, she was greeted by the sparkling eyes of the one hobbit Pippin.

"Come sit with us, Lady Ziva! Frodo would love to meet you!" Not waiting for an answer the little hobbit pulled her back towards the table and towards the little grouping of hobbits. As they approached, Bilbo laughed at the sight.

"The mighty warrior has been kidnapped by a hobbit."

Pippin frowned in indignation. "I am not kidnapping her. Just forcefully suggesting that she come sit with us."

The darker haired hobbit that she recognized as the hobbit she had carried on Sarnie, who was currently sitting next to Bilbo, smiled shyly at Ziva as she sat down next to Pippin. "Hello, Ziva, is it?"

Ziva nodded. "It is good to see you finally well, Frodo. You scared us quite a bit."

Frodo blushed and ducked his head. "Thank you for saving my life."

"Well, I could not just leave you to be taken by those ring wraiths, now could I?" Ziva answered with a smile. "Besides, Sarnie did most of the work."

The buzz of talking from the table reached the little group as silence settled, and Ziva could clearly hear a few different languages being spoken. Looking up and down the table, she was definitely awed by the range of people seated here. Never before had she seen such a varied group as this, with the bearded dwarves heartily eating next to the daintily eating elves who every once in a while would send disdainful looks their way.

"So, Ziva, have you ever tried salted pork? It's really good!" Pippin said, breaking Ziva out of her observations by pulling some of the meat that was on the table in front of them and piling it on her plate.

Ziva raised an eyebrow. "Salted pork? I do not think Lord Elrond has ever served that before."

"The dwarves brought it with them, as a thank you for housing them," Bilbo answered, piling some of the meat onto his own plate.

"What do you like Ziva?" Merry asked through a mouthful of food, and Ziva couldn't help giggling.

"Well, the vegetables are always excellent. As is the bread," Ziva answered, reaching for said mentioned bread and breaking off a piece to place on her plate. The two hobbits sitting next to her then proceeded to dive at the plate and break off some pieces of their own. A smile grew on her face as she watched the two. "And I thought Bilbo could eat."

"Never underestimate the eating power of Merry and Pippin, Lady Ziva," the sandy haired hobbit next to Frodo said, shyly looking away from Ziva when Ziva leaned forward to look at him.

"Sam, is it?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, yes it is, my lady."

"Please," Ziva responded, "Ziva is fine. I do not do well with all the "lady" that gets tossed around here."

Frodo laughed. "You may have to remind Sam a few more times this evening, Ziva. He likes to be very formal."

"I do not!" Sam said, the indignation showing in his face. "I just like to be polite is all. There is no crime in that."

Besides when Elladan and Elrohir decided to grace their presence by eating with them, Ziva couldn't think of any time where she has had as much fun during dinner as she had with the hobbits. Their gentle, but innocent nature was refreshing, and they had some wonderfully hilarious stories from the Shire to tell. Ziva couldn't stop laughing and had to be pounded on the back after she started choking on some of the food she had been eating after Merry and Pippin recounted the story of them setting off one of Gandalf's fireworks at Bilbo's party.

She heard a humph after she caught her breath and turned to see the wizened old wizard standing behind them. "It's amazing that you two are standing after how much you have gotten yourselves into. You're lucky that firework didn't go off in your faces."

"Ah, Gandalf," Bilbo replied, still chuckling. "You're only young once, let them have their fun."

After that, people began trickling out, having eaten enough at the table. After a while though, Ziva started getting the feeling that she was being watched, and turned to catch one of the men who had arrived that morning from what Ziva could recall as Gondor looking at her. He raised his glass at her when he noticed her watching him, and drank from it, turning to some of the other men next to him. With that, Ziva decided she was done, and stood up from the table.

"Thank you for your companionship tonight gentlemen. It has been a pleasure." The hobbits all turned to her as she spoke and almost all at the same time wished her a good night. As she began to walk out of the room, she caught the eyes of Elrond, Arwen, and Aragorn, nodding at them to bid them goodnight, then passed through the doorway towards the apartments. Once in her room Ziva changed into her bedclothes and slipped under her sheets, closing her eyes and falling asleep almost immediately.


	8. The Council of Elrond

**Disclaimer**: I do not own NCIS nor Lord of the Rings, though I do own both on DVD.

_**A/N:** Yes, this is another update in 24 hours! (Sorry about the double post for chapter 8 last night that was actually chapter 7. This website sometimes confuses me. If you are following this story and did not read a new chapter within the last 24 hours, there is another new chapter the chapter before this that you should read first) I have made chapters before that I just knocked around for months before finally posting, but since I felt awful about not updating for a while I decided to post it. Not sure how I feel about it, and yes it follows canon very closely, though I am planing to diverge from here on out from Lord of the Rings canon. I just felt that the Council was important to keep true to movie canon. As always, reviews and critiques are appreciated._

_~Lady Ryn_

* * *

**_Rivendell_**, _**Middle Earth**_

Ziva had just pulled her hair back in a ponytail when she heard a soft knock at her door. Smoothing her shirt down she made her way towards the door and opened it, trying to push down the immediate "on guard" urge that seemed to always follow that action. As the door opened to reveal the persons on the other side, she smiled.

"Good morning, Ziva," the dark-haired Elrohir said, his mouth curling up into a smile as well. "We are here to escort you to the council," he added, with a mock bow.

Stepping out of her room and shutting the door behind her, she snorted. "You two look like hell," she said as she took in the scratches on both their arms and faces, as well as the exhausted looks in their eyes. At their smirks she then jerked her head in the direction of the area where the council was being held and started walking.

Elladan laughed as he fell into step beside the Israeli, Elrohir flanking her other side. "Why thank you, you look wonderful too."

"When did you two get back?"

"Early this morning. The orcs have been dealt with, though we know it won't be the last." Elrohir answered, his voice oddly solemn as he itched at one of the scratches.

Ziva shook her head. "I wish you two would not coddle me so much and let me help you one of these times. Your injuries would not be so extensive then."

Elrohir rose an eyebrow and smirked at her. "You are that confident in your abilities, aier (1)?"

Elladan slung an arm around Ziva's shoulders as he laughed. "Do you even have to ask that question, brother? This is Ziva David. She could gut us all with a spoon in the blink of an eye. What match would poor orcs be for her?"

Ziva pulled away from the much taller elf and slapped him upside the head. "You mock me, yes?"

"Never!" Elrohir exclaimed, his eyes wide with mock shock. When she raised her hand to slap him he ducked, yelling: "I'm an injured elf, I'm an injured elf! Spare me!"

Ziva rolled her eyes with that and continued walking, though a small smirk appeared on her face. "This should be an interesting council."

Elladan shook his head as he caught back up to the Israeli. "If tempers do not flare here, then I am an orc's son."

As Elrohir walked up again on her other side he added, "It should definitely be interesting."

As the three entered the meeting area, Ziva glanced around at the gathered people. Many of these people were the same as those she had seen at dinner the night before. She spotted Frodo and Gandalf at one end of the semi circle, Legolas with other unfamiliar elves whom she guessed were also from Mirkwood, the gathering of dwarves, the man from Gondor who had watched her the night before, and then Aragorn at the other end of the semi circle, but there was no sign of Arwen. Elrohir and Elladan took the two empty seats next to Aragorn as Ziva sat next to them on the end. She did not miss the questioning looks that she received from all the races, though she was pleased to receive smiles from Frodo and Aragorn. As she sat, Elrond stood and surveyed the gathered group.

"Strangers from distant lands, friends of old," he began, his stern gaze sweeping over everyone and his deep, solemn voice easily filling the space. "You have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle-Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate-this one doom. Bring forth the Ring, Frodo," he finished, his hand sweeping towards the pedestal in the middle of the grouping.

With that Frodo rose and hesitantly walked towards the pedestal and reached out his hand, dropping a ring. Ziva sat up straighter, as did most of the rest of the people in attendance. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the ring, and though she could not explain why, she could feel that that thing was evil. She almost felt as if it was whispering to her, reminding her of all the lives she had taken and how fruitless her fight back home had been. Suddenly her study was broken as the Gondorian spoke softly beside her.

"So it is true."

Ziva turned her gaze away from the ring and to the man, her eyes still narrowed. An eyebrow rose in surprise as the man stood and walked forward away from his chair, addressing the rest of the council.

"In a dream, I saw the eastern sky grow dark. But in the West a pale light lingered. A voice was crying: Your doom is near at hand," he said, approaching the ring. "Isildur's Bane is found." His hand crept towards the ring as Ziva tensed. He again repeated, "Isildur's Bane."

With that Elrond leapt up, glaring at the Gondorian. "Boromir!"

As Ziva made to stand as Elrohir and Elladan stood beside her, Gandalf also rose and began speaking, speaking in a tongue that made all thoughts of standing flow out of her head as she watched Elladan, Elrohir, and Elrond sit, grasping their ears as other elves did as well. The sky then seemed to grow dark as the foundations of the ground beneath them shook. "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." As he finished Boromir sat again, a horrified look on his face.

Elrond, as if pained, glared at the wizard. "Never before has any voice uttered the words of that tongue here in Imladris!"

"I do not ask your pardon, Master Elrond," Gandalf responded, almost out of breath, "for the Black Speech of Mordor may yet be heard in every corner of the West! The Ring is altogether Evil!" he finished, swinging his staff around as he glared at Boromir before returning to his seat. Ziva continued to take a couple of deep breaths, feeling almost out of breath herself, but then rolled her eyes as Boromir retorted, shaking his head.

"It is a gift. A gift to the foes of Mordor. Why not use this Ring?" he said, standing. "Long has my father, the Steward of Gondor, kept the forces of Mordor at bay. By the blood of our people are your lands kept safe!" With that she felt Elladan tense beside her as he hand seemed to almost grasp for his sword that was not there. "Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him!"

Elladan's body relaxed as Aragorn's voice finally chimed in: "You cannot wield it! None of us can. The One Ring answers to Sauron alone. It has no other master."

"And what would a ranger know of this matter?" Boromir answered, turning to face Aragorn. For that Ziva also reached for her knife that was not there, making to stand before she felt Elladan's hand on her shoulder and saw Legolas stand almost opposite her.

"This is no mere ranger," he said, his voice full of pride and veiled anger. "He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."

"Aragorn?" Boromir responded, surprise on his face as he faced Aragorn. "This... is Isildur's heir?"

"And heir to the throne of Gondor," Legolas finished, almost smug. Ziva saw the shock ripple among a few people, one of them Frodo, at this revelation. Arwen had informed her of this not too long ago when the subject of Isildur had come up, so it came as no shock to her. It was something, though, that Aragorn seemed to try to ignore.

"Havo dad, Legolas (3)" Aragorn responded, shaking his head and waving his friend down.

"Gondor has no king," Boromir retorted, glaring at Aragorn. "Gondor needs no king," he finished, finally sitting back in his seat, slumped almost in defeat. Elladan then turned to Ziva and raised his eyebrows, and Ziva snorted, sitting back in her seat.

_Yes, there are definitely tempers flaring_, she thought.

"Aragorn is right," Gandalf said, breaking the silence, and all turned to face him. "We cannot use it."

Elrond then spoke up, his voice as calm and even as ever. "You have only one choice. The Ring must be destroyed."

"Then what are we waiting for?" a gruff voice sounded from the dwarves, and Ziva was startled as one stood, grabbing his ax and swinging it down on the ring as the ax exploded. Ziva, out of instinct, ducked as the dwarf was thrown back and other dwarves stood up to help him. That was when Ziva noticed that the ring was still intact, and the look on Elrond's face told her he was not surprised.

"The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Glóin, by any craft that we here possess." Elrond said as the dwarves helped their companion up. "The Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. Only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. One of you must do this."

Silence reigned over the council as everyone just stared at the ring, transfixed. Ziva couldn't believe what she had gotten herself into with this world, and almost tried to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. That was when Boromir's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"One does not simply walk into Mordor." Ziva rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Its black gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. And the great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland. Riddled with fire and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly!"

As Ziva saw Legolas start to stand again, she beat him to it, standing herself and stalking over the unshaven man. "What is your problem? Since you came in here you have not shut up with all your yacking! How old are you?"

Boromir seemed taken back as he stared up at her confused as she heard Elladan and Elrohir sniggering. "What?" he asked, his brows furrowed.

"How old are you? Because you are acting like a child! And you are contradicting men and…and…elves who are much older and wiser than you! Grow up! And shut your…your…oh, how do you say it?"

"Piehole?" Elladan offered, his smirk now a full on grin. He had heard her use the saying before and knew she sometimes forgot her sayings while angry.

"Yes! Piehole! Thank you Elladan."

Boromir then laughed, albeit a bit nervously. "What is this? You are letting women now speak up and chastise the men?"

"Ziva is a guest of this house, Boromir," Elrond responded, the ghost of a smile present on his lips, "and has as much right to speak here as you."

Ziva and Boromir continued to glare at each other as the tension built until Legolas finally stood. "The Ring must be destroyed!"

At that Gimli leaped to his feet and she heard Elladan and Elrohir quietly groan behind her. "And I suppose you think you're the one to do it?" Ziva's eyebrows rose in surprise at the dwarf's animosity towards Legolas, until she heard Boromir's voice again.

"And if we fail, what then? What happens when Sauron takes back what is his?" At that Ziva spun around and stepped towards Boromir, her face livid, and the man fell back against his chair as all chaos broke out behind her.

"I will be dead before I see the Ring in the hands of an Elf!" Gimli shouted as a bunch of voices joined in angrily. "Never trust an Elf!"

As she narrowed her eyes at Boromir she heard Gandalf faintly behind her shouting a warning as she heard threats and insults being thrown by the dwarves against the elves, and the elves against the dwarves. "Do you not understand that while we bicker amongst ourselves, Sauron's power grows? None can escape it! You'll all be destroyed!"

Then, softly, she heard Frodo's voice through the din and turned to look. "I will take it! I will take it!" As if someone was turning down a radio, the arguments died down and everyone turned to face the tiny hobbit standing up proudly, though a bit uncertainly, beside Gandalf. "I will take the Ring to Mordor. Though- I do not know the way." Ziva's heart softened at both the lost sound in his voice and face at his last sentence and moved to step forward before she was interrupted by Gandalf.

"I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours to bear." The wizened wizard smiled comfortingly at the hobbit as he placed his hand on his shoulder as Aragorn stepped forward from beside Ziva.

"If by my life or death, I can protect you, I will." The tall man walked up to Frodo, then kneeled down before him. "You have my sword."

Then Legolas stepped forward from among his companions. "And you have my bow."

Then the rough voice of Gimli broke the silence as he stepped forward, almost smirking at Legolas. "And my axe!"

Giving Ziva a wide birth, Boromir rose and approached the hobbit. "You carry the fate of us all little one. If this is indeed the will of the Council, then Gondor will see it done."

Ziva made to step forward before she was surprised by a shout as Sam jumped up and ran around the group of bushes that were behind Frodo's chair. "Heh! Mr. Frodo is not goin' anywhere without me!"

Ziva looked towards Elrond as his voice, filled with amusement answered, "No indeed, it is hardly possible to separate you even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not." At this Ziva smiled before she was surprised by the last two hobbits brushing past her while making a beeline for Frodo.

"Wait! We're coming too!" Merry's voice rang out as Ziva almost laughed at Elrond's face that was a mixture of exasperation and surprise as the two hobbits planted themselves by Frodo. Merry nodded his head very seriously and added, "You'd have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us!"

Pippin very proudly crossed his arms as his chin raised in stubbornness, staring Elrond down. "Anyway you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission…quest... thing." Ziva snorted as Gandalf shook his head no at Elrond, a look of almost disbelief and possibly amusement on his face as Merry turned towards his friend.

"Well that rules you out Pip."

Again Ziva made to step forward as Elrond began speaking again: "Nine companions... So be it! You shall…"

"Wait, Lord Elrond," Ziva interrupted, stepping forward and over to the group. Kneeling down before Frodo, Ziva looked him in the eye. "If you will have me Frodo, I would like to accompany you on this mission."

"Ziva…" Elrond's voice warned as Boromir's shout rang out.

"Unbelievable! A woman on this type of mission? This is absurd!" Ziva glared up at Boromir and he took a step back as Frodo's voice rang out again in the company.

"I would like your company with us Ziva." Ziva smiled as she stood up and stood proudly next to Aragorn, the twins and Aragorn all giving her looks of surprise tinged with amusement as Elrond sighed in exasperation at the young woman.

"Very well. Then you ten shall be the fellowship of the ring."

Ziva rolled her eyes and had to restrain herself from Gibbs's slapping the young hobbit when Pippin's voice rang out, "Great! Where are we going?"

* * *

**Translations:**

_(1) short one_

_(2) One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them._

_(3) Sit down, Legolas._


	9. The Fellowship Departs

**Disclaimer:** If I owned NCIS and Lord of the Rings, I don't think I would be panicking about finding a career that could help support my horses. So no, I don't own NCIS or Lord of the Rings.

**_A/N: _**_Yes I updated again! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. You all are awesome and have given me motivation again to continue writing.__I hope you like the update! I have proofread this a few times, so I hope there are no mistakes here. As always, reviews and/or critiques are appreciated.  
_

_~Lady Ryn_

* * *

**_Rivendell, Middle Earth_**

"Ziva!"

Arwen's voice stopped Ziva in her tracks as she turned to face the older elf. The elf's dark hair was trailing behind her as she held up the hem of her gown while running towards the woman.

"Arwen," Ziva said as Arwen approached, "you were not at the council."

Arwen came to a stop in front of the Israeli, shaking her head. "One of the horses pulled a tendon out in the field." At Ziva's look of concern she shook her head. "He's resting comfortably now, but I didn't want to leave him alone until he settled in."

"Which horse?" Ziva asked, the concern still showing on her face. The elven horses rarely got hurt, and she hopped it wasn't Sarnie or Asfaloth.

"Bainír. That dark gray stallion who lived in the pasture next to Asfaloth." Realization dawned on Ziva as she remembered the big stallion who always seemed full of himself in the field. "We don't know exactly what happened, so we are keeping an eye on him, as well as the other horses in the field. We don't want it to happen again. So," she said as her eyes narrowed as she studied the young woman. "You volunteered yourself to accompany Frodo?"

Ziva sighed and was about to deliver a quick retort when she noticed the veiled look of hurt that shone through Arwen's eyes. "Arwen," she said as she placed her hand on the taller elf's shoulder. "I do not want to leave you, or Elladan or Elrohir, but I really need to do something. I have not been this inactive for a very long time, and I feel as if my skin is crawling. And I want to help Frodo. There is just something about him that makes me want to protect him."

As Ziva's hand dropped off her shoulder, Arwen sighed herself as she let her eyes drop to her feet. "I wish I could come along, but Ada would not let me in a million years. I cannot believe he is letting you go," she added, looking back up and meeting Ziva's eyes.

Ziva snorted. "I am heading to his office right now. I think he is going to try to dissuade me."

"Don't let him," Arwen answered, shaking her head. "If you ask me, that group needs a female presence. Too much male hormones could be disastrous. Besides," she said, her mouth twisting into a sad smile as tears began to show in her eyes, "I need you to look after Aragorn for me."

"I am not leaving yet, Arwen," Ziva said, patting Arwen on her cheek. "So no crying yet." Looking back behind her towards Elrond's office, she tapped her fingers on her leg before turning back to look at Arwen. "Well, I better go speak to your father. I will see you later." With a smile interchanged between the two, Ziva turned and headed up the rest of the stairs she was currently standing on and towards elven-lord's office. She paused outside the door, her hand ready to knock, when she heard angry voices inside. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, she pushed her ear up against the door and listened.

"…tolerate this anymore, Lord Elrond." Ziva reflexively balled her hands into fists as she recognized the voice of the Gondorian, Boromir. "I did not object to her being at the council, this being your home, but I will not just let her join this fellowship! This journey is perilous and is no place for a woman! She could jeopardize the entire mission!"

"Lord Boromir. As much as I appreciate your thoughts on this matter," Lord Elrond's strained voice answered, "I must disagree. Ziva is a very capable…"

"That she _may_ be, but she is still a woman!" Boromir interrupted. "There is no way that she has the stamina and strength to keep up, and we cannot afford to have to protect her along with Frodo if we are attacked!"

"Ziva can protect herself," Elrond said, his voice clipped. Ziva clearly heard Boromir scoff.

"I highly doubt that."

With that, Ziva decided she had heart enough and knocked on the door. She waited half a second until she heard Elrond's tired voice inviting her in. With that she turned the doorknob and pushed the door in, entering. The tension inside was thick, almost thick enough, Ziva concluded, that she could probably cut through it with her knife.

"You called for me, Lord Elrond?" she asked, not even glancing in Boromir's direction. Though she felt his icy gaze on her, she did notice him take a step back as she entered.

"Yes Ziva. Please. Sit."

Ziva shut the door behind her and walked forward, taking a route that took her closest to Boromir, and took pleasure in the fact that he backed up when she narrowed her eyes at him while walking past. Sitting in one of the chairs in front of Elrond's desk, she gave him most of her attention, some awareness still on the man behind her and to the right.

Elrond looked over her shoulder back to said man, his gaze not betraying his true feelings. "Are we done her, Boromir?"

"I do not have a say in this, do I?" he responded, his tenseness leaking into his voice.

Elrond shook his head. "No you do not. It was Frodo's choice, and he has already spoken on the matter."

With that she heard Boromir turn and stride to the door, pulling it open. His voice then drifted back to the two before Ziva heard the door slam behind him. "If this mission fails, Lord Elrond, because of her, don't say I didn't warn you." Elrond sighed as he sat behind his desk, folding his hands in front of him.

"You have caused quite a stir, Ziva."

"I cannot not go, Elrond. And you know as well as I do that there is no stopping me once I set my mind to something." Ziva thought she caught a hint of a smile on Elrond's face before he schooled it into his passive mask.

"This is going to be a dangerous mission, Ziva."

Ziva nodded. "I know that. And I am willing to take the risk. You have found no new leads on sending me home," she said, Elrond leaning back into his chair with a sigh. "And I cannot sit around and do nothing. I feel obligated to help, if only because I consider you all my friends." Ziva looked Elrond straight in the eye, unblinking. "If there is one thing that my friends from back home taught me, it is that you help your friends."

"And you have lost too many people to not do something when you can," Elrond finished for her, paraphrasing what she had told him the other day after going after Arwen. Elrond sighed with that, shaking his head. "There is indeed nothing I can do to stop you, Ziva. So I wish you luck, and safety. Listen to Gandalf, and as much as I know you and Boromir do not get along," Ziva snorted at this, but quieted when Elrond gave her an almost Gibbs-like glare, "you two need to get along for the whole fellowship's safety."

Ziva smiled slightly, recognizing the half-elf's blessing in the advice. "Thank you."

Elrond stood from behind his desk and nodded to the door. "Now I suggest you go and prepare for your departure."

Ziva placed her hand over her heart and half-bowed, turning away from the elf and towards the door, leaving as quickly and quietly as she could.

* * *

Two days later Ziva, packed and prepared, descended down the flight of stairs into the courtyard where the fellowship was gathering to depart. Dressed for travel she was wearing her breeches, a light though long sleeved loose fitting top, and her knee high boots. When first arriving here she had mourned the loss of her old clothes, destroyed by whatever power had brought her here, but had come to appreciate and like the elven style of clothing. It was comfortable, and at the same time gave her a great range of motion for fighting, if needed. The tip of a bow and arrows peeked over her shoulder while a sword and elven knife adorned her belt. Though the elves seemed to prefer the braided look, she had pulled her hair back into a ponytail with a leather thong to keep it out of her face.

After packing Ziva had spent the last two days with the friends she had made since arriving in the valley, mainly Arwen, Elladan, and Elrohir, trying to spend as much time with them as she could before she had to leave. She was going to miss them all, and the realization that she was leaving them behind made her realize how much she had relied on them these past few months to keep her sane in the face of losing all that she had known. She and Arwen had already shared a tearful goodbye, more tears on Arwen's part than hers, and Ziva was sort of glad that the twins had been called away from Imladris before the departure. They had wished her luck with the gift of one of their bows, the bow that was currently on her back, and one of their elven knives, the knife that was currently sheathed at her belt. Ziva had thanked them with a hug, to both their surprise and partly hers as well, before she had slapped them both upside the head, telling them to be safe.

_You will see them again_, she thought to herself as she approached the already gathered members of the fellowship. She deliberately ignored Boromir, though silently greeted the rest of the group with nods. Everyone was here, including the pack pony they were using to carry some of their essentials, with the exception of Aragorn. As she settled herself next to Legolas on the outskirts of the small group, she glanced around the courtyard, trying to find the ranger. Elrond stood not too far in front of them, quietly conversing with one of the members of his household. Many of the other important members of his household fanned out behind him, contrasting with the fellowship in wearing ceremonial instead of travel garb. Arwen was also absent from the gathering, and Ziva was able to get an idea of where the two of them were. Where Ziva had spent a lot of time with Arwen, Aragorn had spent very little, almost avoiding her. Ziva had noticed Elrond's disapproving looks towards the two earlier, so she wondered if he had something to do with this avoidance.

Ziva was broken out of her reverie by the sound of approaching footsteps on the stairs and noticed Arwen descending, Aragorn following. Though Arwen tried to school her face into the passive mask her father was so good at, Ziva could still see the hurt and sadness there as she settled in among the other elves of the household. As Aragorn joined them, Ziva noticed Arwen's necklace around his neck and was answered with a shake of his head when she quirked an eyebrow at him, indicating it with her eyes.

As Aragorn stopped beside the pony and turned towards Elrond, Elrond's clear voice rang out loud and clear. "The Ring-bearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom. On you who travel with him no oath nor bond is laid, to go further than you will." At will Ziva noticed Elrond look at her, but she held strong. "Farewell," he added, his gaze sweeping the whole group. "Hold to your purpose. May the blessings of Elves and Men and all free folk go with you." With that, he spread his arms out wide, and Legolas and Aragorn bowed their heads, their hands upon their hearts. As Elrond looked at her Ziva nodded, letting her gaze then travel to her close friend standing a ways back. Arwen gave her a small smile, her eyes already filling with tears, before Ziva turned to face Frodo as Gandalf's voice reached her ears.

"The Fellowship awaits the Ring-bearer." Ziva noticed the flicker of fear in the poor hobbit's eyes at this, though she had to give him credit for standing tall and turning to walk through his companions and past Gandalf and finally under the arch that stood behind them all. As the rest of the fellowship began to file out after him she followed, finding herself between Legolas and Sam who was leading their pony. As she herself passed under the arch, she turned to look back, and noticed Aragorn hanging back, watching Arwen. She didn't miss the sorrow that filled the elf's eyes before the arch obstructed her view and she patiently followed the blond head of the Mirkwood elf in front of her.

Following Frodo, the fellowship passed over the narrow bridge that crossed over the roaring Bruinen, and they started their ascent out of the valley. As they crested the lip of the valley, Ziva paused and turned back to look, her eyes scanning the peaceful place that had been her home for the past few months. She felt more than saw Aragorn stop beside her. "You'll be back Ziva."

Ziva turned to half smile up at him. "I certainly hope so. Arwen still owes me for that chicken incident." She saw a smile tug at his lips as he looked down at her.

"Now that is a very good reason for returning." The two of them turned and then followed the rest of the fellowship, bringing up the rear behind Sam and the pony. As a sort of last minute check Ziva half unsheathed her knife at her waist, then her sword, and then checked the small pouch on her belt for the bow strings she would need to string the bow on her back. She was as ready as she was going to be for this mission.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ Ziva is finally leaving Rivendell! Alright, so I want to hear opinions from you all on how I should take this story from here. I've been debating how closely I should follow canon, so I want to know what my readers think, since I am writing this for you all. So if you have an opinion, please share! Thanks for reading!_

_~Lady Ryn_


	10. The Ring Travels South

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Lord of the Rings, nor NCIS, nor Spiderman. If I did I would not have had to fork over the money to get Lord of the Rings on blu-ray, and I would probably not be almost a whole season behind on NCIS.

_**A/N: ***sheepishly* I hope you enjoy it, and don't hate me too much on the long wait? ~Lady Ryn_

* * *

As they traveled along the foot of the tall mountain range that Ziva had always seen from Rivendell, she noticed she wasn't the only one in awe of the rugged beauty of the landscape around them. She caught the hobbits many times looking around in wonder, as well as Legolas, the latter surprising her most. The rolling green hills and rocky outcroppings here and there created a very picturesque scene, and the fellowship could see for miles while on top of one of the hills. The sunsets and sunrises were especially spectacular, with the sunsets casting a rosy glow on the snow-capped mountains above them.

About ten days out from Rivendell, Ziva had finally gotten up the courage to ask Legolas about his wonder with the country around him after watching him gaze contentedly around them for about the tenth time that day.

Legolas smiled before he started speaking. "As old as I am, I have not really seen much of Middle Earth beyond my forest, and I have never been this far South. It is a beautiful country."

Ziva nodded in agreement. "I have never seen anything like it." It was then that Ziva finally processed Legolas's statement of age and she suddenly narrowed her eyes at him, puzzlement and curiosity mingled in her features. "How old are you exactly?" she asked, trying to decipher any age herself. She had always known that Arwen, Elrohir, Elladan, and of course Elrond and probably all the elves in Rivendell were older than her, and she knew that elves aged differently than humans, but she had never specifically asked one of her elven friends their ages to have any guidelines to go by. _Maybe, ninety something?_

Legolas sent her a half grin before he answered. "Nine hundred and five." As Ziva's mouth literally fell open at the answer, Legolas's grin turned into a full smirk.

"Nine hundred and …"

"Five," Legolas finished for her. "And I'm not even as old as Arwen," he added, oddly smug.

Ziva couldn't quite wrap her head around that. Aging differently she got, but being practically a thousand years old, and yet not looking much older than her? That was just…..mind-blowing. And Arwen. She didn't even want to know that number. And to think that 100 was old back home. Legolas elbowed her in the side as they continued walking and nodded to Aragorn. "Aragorn's eighty seven."

"You are joking?" At Legolas's shake of his head Ziva shook her head. "That is it. I am not asking anyone else how old they are here. That is just….weird."

Legolas's musical elven laugh filled the air as they continued walking together over the rough terrain, though now Ziva's mind, having been reminded by Legolas's name dropping, drifted back to Aragorn and what may have happened between him and Arwen at their parting. As much as she wanted to talk to him, however, she wanted to get him alone. So far he had mostly been travelling with Gandalf, the two of them discussing routes and timing, so she hadn't had the chance. But she could wait. She was patient. Most of the time.

* * *

It took her a couple of days, but she was finally able to get Aragorn alone as the two of them brought up the rear of the company. As she had become more used to the land around them, she had began to pay more attention to their own company and notice that each day as they walked that almost as a rule Boromir was as far away as he could get from her, and Legolas and Gimli were as far apart from each other as they could get. It didn't change much from day to day and clearly showed who got along and who didn't. The hobbits, Gandalf, and Aragorn easily intermingled amongst everyone, but that didn't change.

However, as Ziva found herself walking alongside Aragorn, she noticed him keeping on eye on Boromir.

"You do not trust him," she stated, not even bothering to make it a question.

Aragorn shook his head as some amusement flickered across his face. "Of all the things you are, Ziva, subtle is not one of them."

Ziva shrugged and smirked. "I find being blunt to be the easiest path at times."

"Indeed." Aragorn continued walking in silence before he sighed. "I just don't like the way he looks at Frodo and I'm afraid of what he may do. I don't think he would do anything purposeful to hurt Frodo, but the Ring has corrupted the hearts of stronger men before, and I'm afraid of what it is doing to him."

"Well, I just do not like him period," Ziva responded, most of her attention now on Boromir as well. "He is an arrogant misogynistic man with too much pride."

Aragorn smiled softly before looking over at the Israeli. "He is an honorable man, Ziva. The two of you just got off to a rough start."

"Ha!" Ziva exclaimed. "That is an understatement." They walked in silence for a while until Ziva finally broke it again. "So you do not think he would hurt Frodo intentionally to get at the Ring?"

Aragorn emphatically shook his head. "Have you seen him with Merry and Pippin?"

Ziva had to agree with him there. Boromir had obviously taken a shine to the two young hobbits, and they had taken a shine to him as well. It didn't matter what Ziva thought of him on his attitudes towards her; she could not deny he was wonderful for the hobbits. He was so patient with them and was never too busy to help them out if they needed it. And the hobbits, when not bugging Ziva, were not too shy to bug him.

"That I cannot argue with," she said aloud. As they walked, she began to muse on the Ring, now that Aragorn had brought it up. She could not deny that there was definitely a pull that tended to try to make her gravitate towards Frodo as they walked. She could feel the evil, but also the power, which scared her, though thrilled her at the same time. The amount of power anyone would have possessing that Ring would be unimaginable, but Ziva shivered at the amount of evil that that person would also be touched with. That still did not keep her mind from wandering to what could be done with that Ring back home, but then Aragorn's words from the council would seep into her mind, effectively breaking that train of thought. That line from the movie Spiderman that Tony loved to walk around saying would also creep into her mind: _With great power comes great responsibility_, and she didn't think that anyone should have the responsibility of having that much power. As she had seen in her world, as well as what she had read of the history of this one, power was corruptible and therefore should not be used lightly.

As Ziva mused, Aragorn and her continued to walk in silence until Ziva shook her head, breaking her train of thought, and finally got up the courage to ask Aragorn what she had been dying to ask for days. "So what happened between you and Arwen?"

Aragorn sighed. "Again, subtlety Ziva." He didn't say anything more for a couple of strides, then began speaking again. "I tried to give her back her necklace and told her that what we had was a dream, and that she should sail across the sea….with her people." Aragorn's eyes and shoulders dropped with that, and Ziva could tell the great weight he was carrying with that. She had never seen two people so in love as Aragorn and Arwen, and she was sure that it had killed him to tell her that, and her to hear it. Ziva's heart ached for her friends.

"How did she take it?"

"Not very well."

Ziva studied Aragorn as they continued walking. "I should hurt you for hurting my friend, you know. She loved you entirely."

Aragorn's eyes closed in pain as his walking slowed. "And that is what made it all the more difficult."

Ziva continued to study Aragorn and things finally clicked. "Elrond got to you, did he not? Told you to let her go?" Aragorn's silence was all the confirmation she needed from him. A retort though was cut short by Gandalf's calling of a halt for the day. The sun was beginning to set, and the land was starting to cool in the failing light. They had reached a bit of an alcove amongst the rocks on this hill, providing pretty good shelter from any wind that may pick up. There was also some vegetation coverage and rock ledges that would provide ample coverage from unwanted eyes, if needed.

As the group halted, she moved forward up their little line towards Sam and Bill. Since Rivendell you could not separate those two, and it was touching watching how much the pony cared for the hobbit, and vice versa. As she reached Sam she sent him a quick smile.

"Let me help you Sam," she said, helping to lift the heavy packs off of the pony's back. Merry and Pippin ran over to help as well, taking items from Ziva as she pulled them off Bill. She saw their ulterior motives though as they started unpacking the food from the packs for dinner. "Do you two think if anything other than food?" she asked, humor lacing her tone.

"I'm insulted," Merry responded, looking up at her in mock hurt. "You know how much we love our pipe weed." At that Merry's face had broke into a grin and Pippin had outright laughed. They slowed down their unpacking motions though and didn't seem so frantic.

"Can you cook, Ziva?" Pippin asked, curiosity filling his face and voice.

"Of course," Ziva responded, pulling the last pack off of Bill. "I am a very good cook, or at least I was back home. Things are a little more complicated here."

"Good," a voice said as Boromir moved past her, bumping into her. "You can cook dinner tonight then," and then she barely heard him say under his breath as he walked away, "and finally do something you are supposed to do." Ziva ground her teeth together, but kept her mouth shut. She was tired, the hobbits were hungry, and she was learning to pick her battles with him. As infuriating as he was, constant bickering back and forth between the two of them wouldn't solve anything or help anybody. As Pippin placed a large pot in front of her with hopeful eyes, Ziva smiled.

"Stew it is."

* * *

Legolas woke Ziva up a few hours before dawn. She yawned as she blinked sleepily while looking up at Legolas.

"Ready for my shift already?" she said through another yawn. She was used to waking up early to be able to run before work, but waking up this early after a light sleep and after walking for most of the last few days was brutal.

Legolas nodded as he stood up. "All is quiet. Do you want me to stay up with you for a bit to keep you company?"

Ziva shook her head as she stood up as well, running her fingers through her hair and wincing as she encountered a tangle. "I should be fine, thank you." Legolas nodded as he settled in to his bedroll. "Do you even sleep?" she asked, and Legolas chuckled.

"We sleep with our eyes open, but yes we do sleep."

Ziva shook her head as she headed up to one of the rocky outcroppings, settling herself in a cross-legged position. "Creepy." She stifled another yawn as she took in the landscape, seeing no movement. The snores and soft breathing of her sleeping companions reached her ears from where they were sprawled beneath her. Her, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Boromir, and Gandalf took turns as lookouts throughout the night, letting the hobbits get as much much-needed sleep as they could. Ziva enjoyed this pre-dawn time though. In the cool and quiet she could think and just relax. The ache from missing her friends back home was still there, but it was not as strong as it had been and finally getting to do something besides sitting around Rivendell had helped calm her mind and the ache. She still missed her friends, but her sense of duty gave her a reason to be here at least.

As she breathed in the cool, crisp air she thought of all the mornings running in DC. She definitely preferred the quiet silence here, but what she would pay for just a cup of coffee and a long hot shower.

The minutes melded into hours as Ziva sat there surveying the land around her, smirking when Pippin rolled over quite violently, smacking Merry in the process. Merry, for his part, hardly even reacted, besides grumbling and rolling over. Gimli's snores easily drowned out everyone else's in his sleeping spot on the perimeter of the group, though the sound increased and decreased in intensity throughout the night. Besides their little group, however, all was quiet.

As the light started to creep over the mountains, she heard a stirring among their camp and her eyes flickered down to see Aragorn sitting up. Noticing Ziva watching him he made his way over to her, sitting down beside her. They sat in comfortable silence for a while before Aragorn finally broke it.

"You made a good stew last night."

Ziva smiled. "I try. It is actually surprising how well that all went together." Aragorn nodded in acknowledgement before stifling a yawn. "Could not sleep?"

Aragorn shook his head. "Too quiet. And I feel like something is coming."

"It is an odd feeling," Ziva said as she nodded.

"Indeed."

The two sat in silence again until the sun had fully peeked over the mountains, bathing their camp in sunlight and causing everyone else to begin stirring. Pretty soon almost everyone was stretching out muscles sore from walking and sleeping on the hard ground, beginning to move around camp packing up and getting ready for the day. Except the hobbits. All four continued sleeping, blissfully unaware of the bustle beginning around them. Frodo was the first to awake, not too long after everyone else had woken up, Sam following not too far behind. After Legolas finished with all of his things he had approached the two humans sitting on the rocky outcropping.

"Go ahead; I'll keep watch now."

Ziva and Aragorn nodded while standing, Ziva hissing as her muscles complained of the movement. They had cramped up a bit sitting in that cross-legged position for so long, so she had to shake them out before she could properly make her way down to her bedroll to roll it up.

By that time Sam had already started the fire and began cooking breakfast for everyone. The smell of food finally awoke the last two hobbits who were very eager to help, then eat. The two young hobbits, once they finished, approached the two men who were sitting off together, smoking their pipes.

"Could we continue our sword lessons?" Merry asked, holding out his short sword. In their spare time, Aragorn and Boromir had begun teaching the two hobbits how to use their swords, and they had picked up on it rather quickly. Ziva always enjoyed watching the lessons, storing some tips that were thrown at them away for use later.

"Of course," Boromir smiled, putting his pipe away and standing up with his sword in hand. "Alright, let's review stance again." Boromir then proceeded to go over bits and pieces of their previous lessons, such as stance and various parrying and attacking forms, while Aragorn called out tips from the side as they worked.

Also finished with her breakfast, Ziva settled herself down with Frodo and Sam on a rock overlooking their training session, Frodo and Sam both with a plate of food in hand. Despite the man annoying her to no end, she couldn't help but smile at how good he was with the hobbits. He was very patient with them, and was quick to reward when they did something well. He was also quick to correct (as was Aragorn), so his compliments meant all the more to the eager hobbits. Ziva was amazed to see the improvement already showing in them. Boromir was nothing if not a good teacher.

As they were watching, Gandalf had settled behind them smoking his pipe on the rock Ziva had used earlier as a lookout point. Legoals had settled to the side of him, still keeping a lookout, as Gimli settled below him with his pipe as well. Through the clatter of swords and quick instructions being given below her, Ziva heard Gimli start complaining. She had heard him ask of their route earlier, and as she did not know this land at all she hadn't paid much attention, but she did pay attention to his complaining.

"If anyone was to ask for my opinion, which I note they're not, I'd say we were taking the long way round. Gandalf, we could pass through the Mines of Moria. My cousin, Balin, would give us a royal welcome."

"No Gimli," Gandalf responded, a tinge of fear in his voice, "I would not take the road through Moria unless I had no other choice."

At the fear in Gandalf's voice Ziva had turned to look at him, and thus noticed Legolas running to another outcropping to look away South, his attention completely focused on the sky. As she squinted in the direction he was looking, so noticed a dark grey blob shape in the sky, oddly moving quickly towards them. It looked like a cloud, but something about it was off. Her attention didn't even waver when all the commotion started going on behind her with the hobbits and Boromir and Aragorn.

"What is that?" she asked aloud, drawing everyone else's attention towards what Legolas was doing.

"Nothing," Gimli responded gruffly, pulling his pipe out of his mouth. "It's just a wisp of cloud."

At that she heard Boromir behind her respond. "It's moving fast. And against the wind."

Ziva couldn't help but agree with Boromir there and continued to squint until Legolas's voice broke out, "Crebain, from Dunland!"

Aragorn almost immediately yelled, "Hide!" and everyone began scrambling like ants in an overturned anthill. Boromir was calling for Merry and Pippin while Aragorn was calling for Frodo as Ziva tried to grab as many of their things out in the open as possible to get them under cover. Though she didn't know what Crebain were, everyone else's reaction was enough to tell her they weren't good. As everyone ducked under something she could finally hear the flapping of many wings, and she could finally see what Crebain were. Large black birds, almost like crows, flew over, circling their area and cawing as they flew, and Ziva held her breath until they were gone. Along with everyone else Ziva finally crawled out from hiding after waiting a few minutes after the birds had passed, and her eyes flickered to Gandalf as he spoke.

"Spies of Saruman! The passage South is being watched. We must take the Pass of Caradhras," he finished, his gaze turning upon the snow-capped mountain above them.

As Gandalf looked up towards the mountain, Ziva's heart sank. Though she didn't quite get the idea that this Saruman she heard of was using birds as spies, she did get the new peril of their journey in front of them and the cold they were going to have to face. Being from the desert she had never been particularly fond of dealing with snow, and now with nothing more than cloaks and wool clothing to keep them warm, Ziva was not looking forward to having to brave that pass.

* * *

_**A/N: **So I updated! I know I am a terrible, awful, no good author, and I am so so so sorry for going MIA for a year. I blame the TV show Once Upon a Time, but I guess that only accounts for the time since October. All your reviews, follows, and favorites are so very much appreciated, though they make me feel guilty each time I get one when I haven't updated in a while. So I sincerely apologize, and hope you all enjoyed this chapter. After reading all of your reviews, I am going to be sticking mostly to canon, though divulging here and there to of course accommodate Ziva in the group. I really hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it, and as always I always appreciate any reviews!_

_Thanks for reading!_

_~Lady Ryn_


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